Global water scarcity: students help one community

With an estimated 2 billion people living in countries experiencing high water stress (UN 2019), Carey would have been eager to support the student team who will soon be turning an idea into action.

Munk One student teams at the University of Toronto recently presented their proposals inspired and supported by The Carey Projects. The selected team’s initiative will collect water, via a process called fog harvesting, for the community in Ihuanco, Peru, a coastal settlement two hours south of Lima. With a total population of 32 million in the country, three million people lack access to safe water, according to Water.org. Fog harvesting involves erecting mesh nets to catch water droplets from fog blowing with the local prevailing winds.

The initiative is made possible by the generous financial support of family, friends and UofT, including Munk One donors. We are forever grateful for everyone who is part of this effort, the TCP community.

The student team was mentored under the leadership of Don Kingsbury, Interim Munk One Director. The recent graduates of this program are now beginning to gain advisory support from TCP partner Audacious Futures, a consulting group that provides a launchpad for bold innovation. The students will work closely with members of the Ihuanco community to build a pilot project for the water collection, the results of which will be measured in the spring of 2021. Carey was a graduate of The Munk One program, under the direction of Professor Teresa Kramarz. Through her skilled and devoted mentorship, Carey learned the impact of developing solutions with community members to address their needs. Carey also worked as part of the Audacious Futures team in the fall of 2018 and quickly learned how to put audacious ideas into action from her amazing colleagues.

The judging panel who selected the student team included Jennifer Keesmaat, former chief city planner for the City of Toronto; Yaprak Baltacioğlu, Munk School professor and chancellor at Carleton University; Jennifer Frees, vice president, partnerships at the Toronto International Film Festival; and Hamoon Ekhitiari, founder and CEO of Audacious Futures.

We look forward to sharing updates as the students make progress. This local-level initiative can become part of global efforts to address the growing issue of water scarcity.

Thank you to UofT’s Munk One Program, especially Teresa Kramarz, and Audacious Futures, in particular, Hamoon Ekhitiari and Terralynn Forsyth, for all your efforts so far, and to our incredibly dedicated family and friends. This project would not have launched without your love and support.

With our deep thanks,

Cheryl, Owen, and Kile

Article about the beginnings of TCP: https://bit.ly/3mTU7E5