You Don’t Miss your Water ’Til It’s Gone

Johns Hopkins Center for Water and Health

While many worry about “peak oil”—the limits of petroleum production—public health experts are concerned with the availability of a more essential liquid: water. More than 850 million people lack access to improved drinking water, agricultural and industrial demand is increasing, watersheds are being degraded, and infrastructure—1 million miles of wastewater pipes in the U.S. alone—is aging. Kellogg Schwab, director of the School’s Center for Water and Health, and colleagues are using microbiology and advanced molecular techniques to identify and track emerging contaminants in water supplies. Overseas, the researchers are investigating tools and technology that can provide low-tech, sustainable solutions for improving water, such as using colloidal silver in clay pots to make more effective water filters or the feasibility of chlorine-based disinfectants as a way of improving drinking water. Schwab is also a steering committee member of the JHU Global Water Program, which connects Hopkins engineers, public health researchers, economists, policy experts, behaviorists, geologists and security experts. The Program is fostering evidence-based assessment and solutions for pressing problems. “It’s not just potable water. We have to deal with wastewater, hygiene and water sanitation using all the strengths we have at Hopkins,” says Schwab. “Water is an inalienable right, but clean water requires energy, engineering, economics … everything working together.”