water rights in each village . That ’ s one of the things I was proudest of . It was also used in a campaign to boycott water meters in South Africa and on the campuses of Connecticut College and Brandeis University in Boston to boycott bottled water .
We can each look at where our water comes from and how we can protect it .
Q : Globally , in what ways should we be talking about water that we are currently not ? It has shown me that a story that moves the heart really has the capacity to transform the world we live in . Q : How do you think people in the United States can take action to battle this issue ? A : Water is really local issue . Every state has its own battles . In states like New York , it ’ s about making sure we abolish fracking , which is the biggest threat to our aquifers . We ’ re talking about the largest unfiltered drinking supply in the world in New York . We ’ ve got to stop fracking and things that drill beneath our aquifers .
The thing I ’ d really like to see is an Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA ) with teeth . The EPA was created under President Richard Nixon and I want to see an EPA where we don ’ t have oil companies responsible for their own regulating . We need environmental protection and regulation .
I think one of the things we can do is to strengthen the laws that were created under Nixon . We can strengthen the Clean Water Drinking Act , which protects us from 91 chemicals but we now have a few thousand more chemicals we need protection from .
A : The thing is , when we talk about water in India , we don ’ t need to teach people that there ’ s a crisis . Clearly there is . India has less than 4 % of the world ’ s water and 20 % of the world ’ s population . It ’ s not hard . India is a country that ’ s been living with a water crisis for decades .
Here in the States , we need a wake-up call in a big way . We ’ ve had crisis on top of crisis , whether it ’ s chemical spills in Virginia or just plain evil mismanagement of what we are seeing in Flint where our children are being poisoned as a result of corruption .
Water is a precious , precious substance and we need greater foresight about our future . We really need to start thinking about water as part of our national security and essential to our lives .
This interview has been edited and condensed .
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