Africa Water, Sanitation & Hygiene December 2018 Vol.13 No.6 | Page 21

Conflict Resolution
the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID),
the Trump administration launched the U.S. Global Water
Strategy to bring together 17 federal agencies that overlap
with various water policies and issues, in order to elevate
and better coordinate this work across the government.
Since then, new projects focused on improving water,
sanitation, and hygiene (known collectively as WASH in
the global health world) have begun and ongoing efforts
have been aligned. In some nations, these efforts will
create good jobs developing and managing a sustainable
water supply, while in others it will reduce the spread of
disease and lower the morbidity and mortality rates of
young children. In all countries it will provide a stabilizing
force for good. Global Water Strategy of today. Now it’s time to build on
years of commitment and smart strategy with continued
action.
I know from my 12 years in Congress that water is a
place where conservatives and liberals, Republicans and
Democrats in both houses, can and do come together. In
fact, bipartisan congressional efforts are the root of the
U.S. Global Water Strategy. We have had bipartisan champions of water on both sides
of the aisle, but with the retirement of Sens. Bob Corker
(R-Tenn.) and Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), we are in need of more
conservative voices to take up this cause. Improving access
to safe water, sanitation, and hygiene is more than just a
charitable thing to do. Studies have shown how this small
sliver of our annual budget can stabilize nations, create
allies, and improve U.S. global standing. As a doctor, I
think of it as preventive treatment to avoid the costlier,
more devastating outcome.
When I served as Senate Majority Leader, I drafted
in 2005 legislation to address the overall lack of safe
water and sanitation in developing nations, which laid
the groundwork for the progress we have made today.
Called the Safe Water: A Currency for Peace Act, Senate
Democratic leader Harry Reid joined me in introducing
this bill that made access to safe drinking water, basic
sanitation, and hygiene a stated objective of U.S. foreign
assistance. Having just returned from East Asia surveying
the devastation of the tsunami on the coast of Sri Lanka,
I stood on the Senate floor and shared with my colleagues
the urgency of the matter: “Globally, in many ways,
waterborne disease is a silent tsunami,” I explained, “every
15 seconds, a child dies because of a disease contracted
from unclean water. … Fully 90 percent of infant deaths,
of deaths of children less than 5 years of age, relate to
waterborne illnesses, a product of lack of access to clean
water or inadequate sanitation. In total, water-related
illnesses kill 14,000 people a day, and most of them are
children. … It is preventable.”
Our message struck a chord, and together in 2005 we
passed the Senator Paul Simon Water for the Poor Act,
renamed for our colleague and longtime water champion.
Reauthorized as the Water for the World Act nine years
later, the 2014 legislation built on our 2005 law’s mandate
to develop a comprehensive national strategy to deliver
“equitable access to safe water and sanitation in developing
countries” by requiring the formation of first ever “single
government-wide Global Water Strategy” by 2017.
The collaborative efforts of 2005 have brought us to the
As federal agencies align, Congress should step up to the
plate. Our elected officials would be wise to prioritize
and integrate water into legislation that encompasses
everything from global health and food security to
pandemic readiness and prevention to improving HIV/
AIDS work under PEPFAR. Congressional intelligence
committees should urge the intelligence community to
closely monitor regions where water imbalances could
accelerate or magnify humanitarian disasters and security
threats to the U.S. and our allies. And congressional
appropriators must prioritize global water.
Our government can provide important strategic
leadership and cost-effective funding to get ahead of
water-accelerated conflicts; to get ahead of droughts so
they don’t become famines; to get ahead of infectious
diseases so they don’t become pandemics; to dramatically
improve basic disease prevention by helping ministers
of health create plans to equip the tens of thousands of
healthcare facilities that currently operate without water
and sanitation throughout the developing world.
This work is in America’s best interest. Global health
and security improve economic outcomes and increase
viable trade partners for American goods and services.
There remains clear urgency and opportunity in increasing
access to clean water. The U.S. Global Water Strategy must
be increasingly included as a vital tool for U.S. defense,
development, and diplomacy efforts across the globe.
Water can be currency for global peace.
About the Author
Bill Frist is a heart and lung transplant surgeon, former
U.S. Senate majority leader, and founder and chairman of
global health organization Hope Through Healing Hands.
Follow him on Twitter at @bfrist.
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