By Elizabeth Derby, GES Staffer

About two weeks ago, I attended a viewing of Water Pressures on campus. It was a documentary about water conservation in rural India and featured a group of several Northwestern students who traveled to a small Indian village to help put in a better water system.

Juxtaposing Northwestern’s access to Lake Michigan with this rural Indian village’s access to water from wells and small ponds, I was struck with the realization that we are pretty lucky.  We are lucky to be living so close to such a major water source, and we are lucky to have a local and national government that regulates our water system. We have clean, cheap, and safe water whenever we need it.  We are lucky because in many places, this is not the norm.  One in 8 people worldwide lack access to water.

This film made me realize how much I take for granted every day, but it also made me realize that maybe we can change things. Yes, we have Lake Michigan in our back yards, but that water cannot just be transported to parts of the world that need it. We need new ideas, new technology, and new policy on how to make conditions better in parts of the world that lack access to safe water.

After watching Water Pressures,  I felt like I needed to do something.  I started monitoring how much water I used to wash dishes and how long my showers were. These are small things of course, and will not make an impact on India directly, but perhaps, indirectly it can.  Films like Water Pressures will put the idea of water conservation on people’s minds.  These ideas can turn into projects and, through conferences like GES, can foster a new generation of global thinkers that see water issues as a priority for our future.