"Music, Citizen Engagement & Water Resource Management" is the focus of special panel discussion set for 7 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 6 at the Community Concert Hall in Fort Lewis College (FLC). The discussion, held in conjunction with The Nile Project, a visiting music ensemble, is free and open to the public. The panelists' brief biographies have now been released.
The panel, will be facilitated by Durango river enthusiast Heath Corley. Panelists are:
Ty Churchwell, San Juan Mountains Coordinator of Trout Unlimited's "Sportsmen's Conservation Project." .
Gary Gianinny, Professor and Chair, Department of Geosciences, Fort Lewis College
Mina Girgis Nile Project producer and CEO.
Aaron Kimple, Mountain Studies Institute, Program Director/ San Juan Headwaters Program Coordinator
Rory Cowie, Mountain Studies Institute, Water Resources Program Director/ Hydrologist
"Water is the life-blood of a region," said Charles Leslie, Concert Hall director. "Its importance was brought home to those of us here in the Four Corners region in August 2015 with the release from the Gold King Mine into the Animas River. With the panel we hope to explore how we, as individuals, can become more involved in the management of this precious and limited resource, as well as how the Nile water region parallels or diverges from the water stresses in Durango and the Four Corners."
Due to overpopulation, increased demand for food, climate change and pollution, as many as two-thirds of the world's citizens by 2025 may face water-stressed conditions, severely impacting the living and economic conditions of communities, countries and regions. The Nile River basin's 450 million inhabitants are projected to double within the next 25 years, increasing the demand for Nile water: water that is tied to all aspects of regional life. The mounting resource scarcity has contributed to a geopolitical conflict among riparian states, and The Nile Project is one effort to transform the Nile Conflict.
"The panel discussion will be of interest to a wide variety of disciplines," said Leslie. "Of course water and environmental sciences, but also everything from political science and economics, to agriculture and anthropology."
The Nile Project music group will take the stage at the Community Concert Hall on Tuesday, Feb. 7, 7:30 p.m. Further information is available at www.nileproject.org.
