In the early days of space exploration, the first images taken of our home planet showed the Earth to be a bright blue marble in the vastness of space. The striking blue in these images – covering more than 70% of the planet’s surface – represents our planet’s water resources. Yet, despite this seemingly endless supply of water, only about 2.5% is fresh water, two-thirds of which is trapped as ice in glaciers. Over 90% of the fresh water that is not ice may be found in finite amounts in underground aquifers.

Approximately one third of the world’s population now lives in areas with scarce freshwater resources. A recent U.N. report projects that by 2025 water scarcity will affect two-thirds of the population. In addition, increasing amounts of pollution from domestic, industrial, and agricultural run-off is contaminating an ever shrinking water supply. The lack of access to and availability of clean water and sanitation has had devastating effects on many aspects of daily life. 

Water-related microbial diseases, including diarrhea and malaria, account for approximately 4 percent of all deaths and 5.7 percent of the total burden of disease. Areas without adequate supplies of freshwater and basic sanitation carry the highest burdens of disease which disproportionately impact children under five. To discuss these and related topics, the Institute of Medicine’s Forum on Microbial Threats will host a two-day public workshop on “Global Issues in Water, Sanitation, and Health,” on September 23 and 24, 2008, in Washington, DC. Through invited presentations and discussions, this workshop will explore such issues as: classification and surveillance of water-related microbial diseases; metrics for measuring water quality; relationships between human change, ecology and disease; models of disease emergence and transmission; and, interventions to improve water access and sanitation; and impact assessments. 

This workshop is free and open to the public; however, due to meeting faciliity limitations, advance registration is required.

Click here to register online for the workshop.

Click here to view a draft agenda.