Oct 26, 2022
Forces of Nature is a talkshow miniseries featuring dynamic leaders from across food & environmental movements. Tune-in for a dose of optimism.
w/ host: Aaron Niederhelman
Water
is a fundamental part of all aspects of life. Yet, today, 40% of
the world’s people are affected by water scarcity; 80% of
wastewater is discharged untreated into the environment, and more
than 90% of disasters are water-related. And despite all of these
real concerns – we still suck down 70% of available freshwater
to lavishly manage antiquated cropping systems chock full of
chemical externalities.
The long and short of it – we need awareness of the problems and
more solutions for the vast water crises enveloping the planet. So,
to find out what should be done to manage water better in the
future – we’ve turned to the guy that the United Nations has asked
to quarterback their big 2023 Water Conference. We welcome Henk
Ovink.
How we all decide to consume will play a major role in eradicating
pressing water concerns. Spurring on more awareness and
incentivizing change in stakeholder behavior is ultimately what’s
needed to evolve our relationship with nature. Food seems a logical
place to begin taking action, and from my POV it’s all about good
storytelling that'll be the remedy here. Tune-in to hear what this
Force of Nature has to say about the
future of water and our shared future. -
Aaron
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Henk Ovink was appointed by the Dutch Cabinet as the first Special Envoy for International Water Affairs in 2015. As the Ambassador for Water, Henk is responsible for advocating water awareness around the world, focusing on building institutional capacity and coalitions among governments, multilateral organizations, private sector and NGO’s to address the world’s stressing needs on water and help initiate transformative interventions.
Ovink is also Sherpa to the High Level Panel on Water, installed by UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon and President of the World Bank Jim Kim with 10 Heads of State / Heads of Government including Prime Minister Rutte from The Netherlands, in a effort to catalyze change in water awareness and implementation. Henk is Principal for REBUILD BY DESIGN – an innovation competition that would forever change how natural disaster clean-ups look at resilience. Ovink is also a founding father of the Dutch-founded public-private partnership “Water as Leverage”.
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SUPERSTORM SANDY REBUILD:
In 2012, Henk Ovink was appointed by President Obama and the Secretary of HUD, Shaun Donovan, to become the special envoy of Water to the US. He was directly responsible for launching the HUD & Rockefeller funded program REBUILD BY DESIGN – a global crowdsourcing initiative of top designers and planners to pool the best ideas which would rebuild using federal resources after Hurricane Sandy. The program was such a success it reformulated the approach the US government used for federal payouts on natural disasters, and became the linchpin for commitment to “resilience” in infrastructure rebuilds following future incidents.