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World Water Week: Healthy ecosystems essential to human health: from coronavirus to malnutrition Online session Wednesday 24 August 17:00-18:20

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Our session will explore “Seeing the unseen: The value of water,” including climate change, ecosystems, sociocultural and economic factors along with how water scarcity, poor water quality and inadequate sanitation negatively impact food security, livelihood choices and educational opportunities for poor families across the world and, in fact, everyone.

 

 

 Horizon International logo and book cover design created by Bela SelendyHorizon International logo and book cover design created by Bela Selendy

 

Our session will explore “Seeing the unseen: The value of water,” including climate change, ecosystems, sociocultural and economic factors along with how water scarcity, poor water quality and inadequate sanitation negatively impact food security, livelihood choices and educational opportunities for poor families across the world and, in fact, everyone.

 

Dr Paul Farmer’s Foreword to my second volume of Water and Sanitation‐ Related Diseases and the Changing Environment expressed, in part, our WWW session’s objectives: “a ... review of some of the ranking problems of our time....” with “highly focused considerations of specific waterborne illnesses and more broad‐ranging matters from climate change to technological innovation” ... providing a “guide [to] collective action going forward.

“The structural violence of poverty, climate change, and socially constructed scarcity is evident in the long list of assaults and afflictions detailed...:the preventable deaths from diarrhea of hundreds of thousands of children every year, the lack of access to safely managed water services for over two billion people globally, and the persistence of rudimentary sanitation systems—or none at all, in some areas—heighten risks of waterborne disease and even physical insecurity for over a third of the world’s population.

Group who will be asked to participate include some of the first and second books’ 75 international authors, 23-year-old female environment student who studied in Senegal, Nigerian WWW comic winner (Horizon collaborator), ocean expert Sylvia Earle, mangrove and seagrass experts, American Indians involved with salmon and ecosystems they preserve.

 

Programme

1 minute

Moderator: Robert Wyman, Yale University Professor Emeritus Will open the session and Introduce Janine Selendy
 
2 minutes
Title: Introduction to Session, Healthy ecosystems essential to human health: from coronavirus to malnutrition
Janine M H Selendy, Chair, Founder and Publisher, Horizon International, at Yale University, Editor of 1st & 2nd Edition, Water and Sanitation Related Diseases and the Environment: Challenges, Interventions and Preventive Measures and 2nd Volume: Water and Sanitation-Related Diseases and the Changing Environment: Challenges, Interventions, and Preventive Measures. She is writing a popular version of the books.
 
14 minutes plus 5 Q & A
Title: Ecosystem Health as the Basis for Human Heath
Dr. Tom Barker and Dr. Jane Fisher, Centre for Alternative Technology, UK.  Co-Authors of “Ecosystem Health as the Basis for Human Health,” in the 2nd vol. of our books, Water and Sanitation-Related Diseases and the Changing Environment... 
 
5 minutes plus 2 Q and A
Title: The Dilemma, to live in the fertile valley or not. Decisions in River Blindness (Onchocerciasis)
Dr Adrian Hopkins MBE, Consultant in Blinding and Neglected Diseases of Poverty, Formerly Director of the Mectizan Donation Program.
 
4 minutes plus 2 Q &A
Title: The importance of Mangroves with examples from Senegal and other countries
Linnea Selendy, an Environmental Science major at Bates College who studied in Senegal and will address the vital, little recognized and appreciated,
 
11 minutes plus 5 Q&A
Title: Water for agriculture: Dwindling supply but more and more people to feed: An incipient crisis
Professor Emeritus Robert Wyman, PhD, Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, Yale University, and Guigui Yao, PhD, Professor, School of Foreign Languages, Jianghan University, Wuhan, Hubei, China; Associate Research Scholar, American Studies, Yale University. Co-authors of chapters for our 1st and 2nd volume of our books, Water and Sanitation-Related Diseases and the Changing Environment...
 
6 minutes plus 5 Q&A
Title: The lack of fresh water and adequate sanitation in Nigeria and loss of ecosystems in the Niger delta
World Water Week award winning cartoonist, Francis Umendu Odupute, will speak a display of his cartoons. Francis Odupute, is a journalist with The Nigerian Observer Newspapers, and chairman, WASH Media Journalists Network Nigeria, Edo State chapter, CEO of African Press Cartoon, a media and edutainment firm registered in Nigeria, and President of Beautiful Feet International (BFI), a faith-based development organization.
 
10 minutes plus 5 Q&A
Title: The Impact of Armed Conflict on Ecosystems
Barry S. Levy, M.D., M.P.H., is an Adjunct Professor of Public Health at Tufts University School of Medicine and a past president of the American Public Health Association. He is the author of the book “From Horror to Hope: Recognizing and Preventing the Health Impacts of War” (Oxford University Press, 2022). Previously, he has edited 20 books on the public health impacts of war and terrorism, environmental and occupational hazards, social injustice, climate change, and related topics. He has written more than 250 journal articles and book chapters, including a chapter on “Water and Armed Conflict” in both editions of Water and Sanitation-Related Diseases and the Changing Environment....
 
1-2 minutes

Moderator remarks and Reintroduces Janine Selendy for concluding remarks and to thank panelists and audience. 


Resources

 

Horizon International

http://www.solutions-site.org

Horizon International works to find and advance solutions to vital concerns in the interconnected areas of health, the environment, population and economic well-being through its programs, lectures, conferences, and consultancies. The organization, based at Yale University, focuses on needs that it can most effectively address, prioritizing initiatives that are most pressing and that inform and inspire positive action with the help of its Scientific Review Board and Special Advisors.

 

Water and Sanitation Related Diseases and the Environment: Challenges, Interventions and Preventive Measures

https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Water+and+Sanitation+Related+Diseases+and+the+Environment%3A+Challenges%2C+Interventions%2C+and+Preventive+Measures-p-9780470527856

Written by authorities from various related specialties, this book presents the most complete treatment possible of the conditions responsible for water- and sanitation-related diseases, the pathogens and their biology, morbidity and mortality resulting from lack of safe water and sanitation, distribution of these diseases, and the conditions that must be met to reduce or eradicate them. Preventive measures and solutions are presented throughout. This book is an essential resource for all graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, and professionals in infectious disease, public health and medicine, chemical and environmental engineering, and international affairs. Janine M. H. Selendy, Editor

 

2nd Volume: Water and Sanitation-Related Diseases and the Changing Environment: Challenges, Interventions, and Preventive Measures

https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Water+and+Sanitation+Related+Diseases+and+the+Changing+Environment%3A+Challenges%2C+Interventions%2C+and+Preventive+Measures%2C+2nd+Edition-p-9781119416180

The revised and updated second edition of Water and Sanitation Related Diseases and the Changing Environment offers an interdisciplinary guide to the conditions responsible for water and sanitation related diseases. The authors discuss the pathogens, vectors, and their biology, morbidity and mortality that result from a lack of safe water and sanitation. The text also explores the distribution of these diseases and the conditions that must be met to reduce or eradicate them. The text includes contributions from authorities from the fields of climate change, epidemiology, environmental health, environmental engineering, global health, medicine, medical anthropology, nutrition, population, and public health. Covers the causes of individual diseases with basic information about the diseases and data on the distribution, prevalence, and incidence as well as interconnected factors such as environmental factors. The authors cover access to and maintenance of clean water, and guidelines for the safe use of wastewater, excreta, and grey water, plus examples of solutions. Written for students, and professionals in infectious disease, public health and medicine, chemical and environmental engineering, and international affairs, the second edition of Water and Sanitation Related Diseases and the Changing Environment isa comprehensive resource to the conditions responsible for water and sanitation related diseases. Janine M. H. Selendy, Editor

 

From Horror to Hope

https://global.oup.com/academic/product/from-horror-to-hope-9780197558645?cc=us&lang=en&

From Horror to Hope: Recognizing and Preventing the Health Impacts of War by Barry S. Levy, M.D., M.P.H. (Oxford University Press, 2022)

From Horror to HopeFrom Horror to Hope


From Horror to Hope documents the health consequences of war, primarily for noncombatant civilians but also for military personnel and veterans, and outlines what can be done to minimize these consequences. The book also describes positive developments in addressing the health impacts of war, including new initiatives to protect civilians during war, reduce gender-based violence and mental trauma, and control the international arms trade and nuclear weapons.

 

From Horror to Hope profiles inspiring health professionals who are providing healthcare for war-affected populations and participating in education, research, and advocacy to reduce the health impacts of war. And the book demonstrates how traditional public health frameworks and new paradigms can be applied to the prevention of war and the promotion of peace.

 

 

 

Magic Porthole: Coral Reefs and Oceans

http://www.magicporthole.org/

Magic Porthole takes you into the fascinating and fragile world of coral reefs and the vast oceans. Enjoy playing games as you make discoveries about the lives of frogfish, cleaning gobies, turtles, seahorses, and dolphins. Deepen your knowledge with exciting videos, games, and many resources from aquariums, museums, NOAA, and the Wild Dolphin Project, among others.

 

Protecting Against Flooding: Holland's storm-surge barrier

A special “dike with doors” prevents flooding and simultaneously preserves the ecology of the Eastern Scheldt Delta.

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