I recently had the pleasure of attending a Politics and Prose lecture and book signing by Steven Solomon, author of Water: The Epic Struggle for Wealth, Power and Civilization.
His lecture was great, as was the Q&A as is typical at that bookstore. Then I saw his brief and RIGHT-on-the-money NYT oped about Haiti and water (thanks waterlines.org for bringing that to my attention).
A Recovery Built on Water
It makes all the rights points about water being not only the most important response to an emergency, but being the foundation of sustainable development.
To quote: "Water poverty is the main reason for Haiti's abysmal illness and early mortality rates." and "Local water management both inside and outside the cities is a necessary condition for rebuilding all of Haiti."
My hope is that the crisis in Haiti - after the proper response has been taken to save as many lives as possible in the short term - can be leveraged, can be an enabler of efforts to address the development deficit that existed in Haiti long before the earthquake, starting with safe drinking water and sanitation.
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