Chicago 2016 Olympics Bid: Water!

Water makes it to the big game...

I was just digging through the recently-submitted Chicago bid for the 2016 Olympics and found some very encouraging language on global water:

“Chicago will partner with the Olympic Movement to help address the worldwide fresh water crisis. Chicago 2016’s concept of the Blue-Green Games, which refers to the blue of the fresh water lake and the green of the city’s expansive parklands, features a portfolio of environmental initiatives. These efforts will provide access to fresh water, resources and technology to regions of the world in need, thus making sport more accessible to all.”

Water Positive

“Chicago 2016 intends to create a positive impact on water resources during the Blue-Green Games and will achieve this objective through three main strategies. First, although Chicago is not located in a region where water is a scarce resource, water conservation at all levels is immensely important. CHICOG will reduce the amount of water used in the Village and venues by 20 percent. The plan will focus on storm water collection and reuse and the application of best practices for water management and conservation at venues and the Village.

Second, CHICOG, in conjunction with the Chicago Climate Exchange, will pursue the creation of an innovative Water Markets program to advance water sustainability issues and economic incentives for conservation.

Third, and most ambitious, CHICOG will develop an innovative Water positive program, a global water access initiative to bring clean water to developing communities around the world. In conjunction with NGOs and NOCs, this new program will bring opportunities for the greater pursuit of sport in developing countries and will become a legacy of the Chicago 2016 Games.

Water Positive will:

• Establish the Water Access through Sport program in international sporting locales to increase clean water access as well as opportunities to actively pursue sports.


• Achieve a 20 percent water use reduction at the venues and Olympic Village.


• Incorporate water conservation and water reuse technologies in the venues and Village.


• Educate spectators and visitors about water conservation and water sustainability during the Games.

The linkages between sports and development challenges are clear and go both ways. Children and athletes need safe water and sanitation to remain healthy and hydrated, and sports can be used to raise awareness of water issues around the world. Kudos to the Chicago 2016 team for recognizing these linkages and acting on them.

Bush/Cheney and Global Public Health Challenges

Let's consider for a moment the article currently front and center on WaPo:

Bush Appointee Blocked Surgeon General's Draft

I don't yet have a copy of the report, but its draft includes the following:

"we cannot overstate . . . that problems in remote parts of the globe can no longer be ignored. Diseases that Americans once read about as affecting people in regions . . . most of us would never visit are now capable of reaching us directly. The hunger, disease, and death resulting from poor food and nutrition create social and political instability . . . and that instability may spread to other nations as people migrate to survive."

Yes. And without provoking a flame war by getting involved in the partisan debate associated with the release (or non-release) of this report, let me tie this article to the world's largest public challenge: unsafe water and inadequate sanitation. They are not only the world's largest public health challenges but also the most solvable.

Safe water is not gun control or abortion or Iraq. It is noncontroversial, and supported by all save a few rabid isolationists. So let's ask this White House to fully fund 2005's Senator Paul Simon Water for the Poor Act and include this request in their FY09 budget to Congress this fall. Further updates shortly on how the FY08 process is going, btw.

Water, Education, and American Express: priorities...

Just this morning I received an email from an old (I should say long-time) friend of mine suggesting I vote for the DonorsChoose project for education at the Amex Members Project contest here:

Members Project

She positioned DonorsChoose as the "David" and the UNICEF Children's Safe Drinking Water Project as the "Goliath," as does a recent interesting NY Times article here. My response to her (and to the dozens of other friends she had included in her To: line (most always a bad idea) was that Yes, UNICEF is large, but the word"Goliath" unjustly positions the Amex contest as a David vs. Goliath battle which fails to account for the real beneficiaries of both projects: children who either die from unsafe water or do not receive an adequate education.

Unsafe water is the #1 killer of children throughout the developing world. Period. Bad water kills five times as many kids as HIV/AIDS, twice as many as malaria. Period. More germane to this conversation: Without safe water, girl children in particular will not have the opportunity to enroll in school (they spend their childhoods either sick and hauling 45 pound buckets of dirty water on their heads). If their schools do not have single-gender sanitation facilities, they will drop out of school once they start menstruating and lack privacy. Safe water is in many cases the single biggest determinant of whether or not a girl receives an education.

For more information on the water/education nexus:

Water and Sanitation: The Education Drain (WaterAid)

The Education Millennium Development Goal: What Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Can Do

Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Education for Schools - Oxford Roundtable Statement

UNESCO – Focusing Resources on Effective School Health

Where to Start in Africa?

William Easterly had an insightful piece "What Bono doesn't say about Africa" in the LA Times on July 6 which included:

...the typical African is a long way from being a starving, AIDS-stricken refugee at the mercy of child soldiers. The reality is that many more Africans need latrines than need Western peacekeepers — but that doesn't play so well on TV.

Couldn't agree more. The opportunities for education, health, poverty alleviation and real economic development which accrue to an individual who has a place to go to the bathroom are worth contemplating. Also worth contemplating, considering the overall pessimism regarding the potential of sub-Saharan Africa to reach the Millennium Development Goals, is the contribution that the provision of safe drinking water and improved sanitation (viz. latrines) makes to each of the other Millennium Development Goals. Much research exists to quantify the positive impact that safe drinking water and improved sanitation have on the MDGs on maternal and child health, education, poverty alleviation, gender equality and environmental sustainability. Some of the most clear findings on this are here.