Boston Water Group meets at the BU Pardee School
The Boston Water Group, a scholarly community of academics and practitioners in and around Boston with an interst in global water issues, met at the Boston Univeristy Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies on September 16, 2014. Some 30 water experts attended the meeting, including academics from MIT, Harvard, Tufts, Suffolk University, Univeristy of Connecticut, Univeristy of Massachusetts, BU and a number of government and consulting agencies.
A wide variety of issues came up for discussion at the meeting, including the need to integrate water concerns with concerns about development, and particulalry about health and about climate change. Participants presented a variety of perspectives from around the world on the various manifestations of the water challenge in differing contexts.
The Boston Water Group, now in existence fore more than a year, brings together experts with a shared interest around water. It provides an interdisciplinary forum to bring together the Boston-area individuals and institutions – over 80 water professionals and 15 institutions are represented – who work within academia, private or public sectors. This invitation-only group meets once a month at one of the host institutions for dinner and a problem-solving discussion.
The meeting was lead by Prof. Larry Susskind of MIT and Prof. Shafiqul Islam of Tufts University. Prof. Adil Najam, the Dean of the BU Pardee School of Global Studies, attended the meeting and briefed the participants about the new school and its mission of ‘Advancing Human Progress.’