Solving Water Shortages

The world is facing an unprecedented water crisis. Only half of households can access water at home. Unsafe drinking water, inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene cause an estimated 1.8 million preventable deaths a year, mostly among children. Providing safe water, sanitation and hygiene (WaSH) is the one intervention most likely to reduce world poverty. In the U.S. and other industrialized nations, water scarcity and aging water-and-sanitation infrastructure are increasing concerns.

UNC’s Gillings School of Global Public Health has made an extraordinary commitment to finding solutions to the world’s the water and sanitation crises.

With the leadership of Jamie Bartram, Ph.D., the Don and Jennifer Holzworth Distinguished Professor of Environmental Sciences and Engineering and director of the UNC Water Institute, and Gregory Characklis, Ph.D., Singer Distinguished Professor of Environmental Sciences and Engineering and director of the UNC Center for Environmental Financial Risk, we are making an impact in North Carolina, the U.S. and across the world. Our work to develop sustainable, systems-based approaches, such as inexpensive water purification technology and innovative financing mechanisms that help regions share water during droughts, are providing clean water — and hope — to more and more people every day.

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