KDSN RADIO News
Clean water is the focus of all-day conference
The Des Moines-based Harkin Institute is hosting what it calls a wellness symposium today on The Future of Clean Water.
Event organizer Adam Shriver, the institute’s director of wellness and nutrition policy, says there are all sorts of threats to clean water — from climate change to other human-caused risks, including state and federal policies.
“The real problem for clean water is that there’s a number of challenges facing it all at the same time,” Shriver says. “Our conference was really designed to look at what’s happening in Iowa, but also from a national lens.”
Shriver says community-based initiatives that protect and improve water quality are being shown to have lasting, positive impacts on human and environmental health. He says they’ll be focusing on connections between clean water and agriculture.
“We’re going to have speakers talking about some of the issues in California, where there’s a lot of water consumption from agriculture,” Shriver says, “but also looking at Iowa, where chemical usage and high nitrates are playing a big role in people’s ability to swim in local streams and lakes, and also impacting the water quality around the state.”
There’s a lot of public interest in clean water, he says, but many people aren’t sure how they can help.
“I feel like the excitement among the population isn’t always matched by concrete actions being done to fix some of the problems,” Shriver says. “That’s really what our conference is about, getting a scientifically-informed understanding of what’s happening with the water and looking at ways in which we can improve it.”
About 150 people are registered to attend the all-day symposium in person at Drake University, with another 100 participating online. Learn more HERE.
