Innovative ideas to protect drinking water

Main Category: Water - Air Quality / Agriculture
Article Date: 25 Jun 2005 - 11:00 PDT

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Germany - National Geographic Germany and Bayer AG are committing a total of EUR 250,000 in funding to promote new research on drinking water protection. As part of the "National Geographic Global Exploration Fund", the two companies are supporting scientific projects aimed at researching the exploitation, distribution and responsible use of water around the world. The shortage of freshwater is viewed as the biggest problem facing the world's population today. More than one billion people currently have no access to clean drinking water, and this trend is accelerating. The fund set up by National Geographic and Bayer is aimed particularly at scientists in the German-speaking countries. A scientific committee made up of prominent members will decide which projects are eligible for support.

"With the Global Exploration Fund, we are bringing this idea of the National Geographic Society to Germany," says Klaus Liedtke, Chief Editor of National Geographic Germany. With this project, National Geographic for the first time is entering a theme-related research collaboration with another company outside the United States. The U.S. parent company is the world's largest charitable scientific organization. Since its establishment in 1888, the National Geographic Society has supported nearly 8,000 projects worldwide aimed at research into and protection of the Earth's habitat - including the activities of Jane Goodall and Dian Fossey aimed at protecting chimpanzees and gorillas in Africa, the underwater research of Jacques-Yves Cousteau and the efforts of Michael Fay to have large parts of Gabon declared a wildlife sanctuary. "Together with our partner Bayer, we now want to specifically give German scientists the opportunity to conduct research on behalf of National Geographic and thus join the international 'who's who' of researchers," adds Liedtke.

Bayer AG for many years has promoted the responsible use of water. "Sustainable development is an integral part of our corporate policy," says Dr. Udo Oels, Bayer AG Management Board spokesman for Innovation, Technology and Environment. For example, Bayer has sharply reduced water consumption at its sites worldwide through modern production processes and has developed numerous water treatment products. It is also working on the creation of crops that thrive without large amounts of water even in extremely arid conditions. "The collaboration with National Geographic represents the synthesis of innovation and social responsibility," Oels explains, adding: "As a company with a long tradition of research, we don't just invest in our own projects, but have also supported innovative research activities around the world for many years. Water is our most valuable resource. That's why we use this resource responsibly in our production and now also aim to promote research activities aimed at safeguarding and treating water resources. In this way, research makes an important contribution to the future of humankind."

The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) welcomes the efforts of National Geographic and Bayer: "The BMBF works with German industry to support numerous projects in the area of sustainable use of water resources," says Wolf-Michael Catenhusen, State Secretary for Education and Research. "We are very pleased that with this new program, National Geographic and Bayer are actively supporting efforts to protect freshwater - and especially that they are urging German researchers to develop innovative ideas for clean drinking water."

Meeting the world's steadily growing water demand is one of the major challenges of the future. Nearly 97 percent of the world's water is contained in the oceans, while 2 percent is contained in ice. Just under 1 percent is available to people for drinking, irrigation and industrial use. If the world's population continues to grow at the current rate, it will be increasingly difficult to meet the need for clean water. The United Nations forecasts that 20 years from now, up to 3.4 billion people will be living in countries where water is scarce. The U.N. wants to stem this development and has thus declared supply of the world's population with drinking water as one of the most important global development goals, launching the "Water for Life" decade at the beginning of this year: the aim is to cut in half the number of people without access to clean drinking water by 2015, a figure which currently totals 1.3 billion.

That's why research in this area is more important than ever. National Geographic and Bayer are setting aside a quarter of a million euros for researchers who aspire to find solutions to the problem. Suitable research themes could include finding and exploiting new sources of freshwater; treating the water; monitoring its quality and efficiently distributing it; as well as analyzing changes in global freshwater circulation and their consequences as regards the vegetation zones. The initiative is open not only to natural scientists, but also to experts in humanities and engineers from the German-speaking countries, as well as to international scientists with projects in these countries.

Globally renowned geophysicist and marine geologist Professor Gerold Wefer, from Bremen, Germany, is accepting applications through September 15 and will join with the fund initiators in pre-selecting candidates to receive project support. An illustrious committee including Professor Wefer will then meet in the United States to make a final decision regarding the distribution of grant money. Information on the application for grant funds can be found on the Internet at nationalgeographic.de/gef.

: BAYER AG
Michael Schade
Tel.: +49 (0) 214 30-58059
Fax: +49 (0) 214 30-50243
E-Mail: michael.schade.ms@bayer-ag.de
http://www.bayer-ag.de

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC GERMANY
Sandra Pickert
Tel.: +49 (0) 40 3703-5504
Fax: +49 (0) 40 3703-5590
E-Mail: Pickert.Sandra@nationalgeographic.de
http://www.nationalgeographic.de

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