Sen. Paul Simon was right about the looming water crisis facing our world

In every sense, I am here today because of my mentor — the late Sen. Paul Simon (D-Ill.). His help was personal. His public service was inspiring. And his insights are worth remembering.  

Nearly 25 years ago he wrote a book called “Tapped Out,” about the looming global crisis regarding access to clean water, especially for many of the world’s poor. It wasn’t a best seller, but like so many of Paul’s efforts, it was ahead of its time. 

He understood that to avoid conflict between some nations, you cannot ignore water.

He understood that to keep a girl in school or reduce infant mortality, you had to provide adequate sanitation and clean water.

And he understood that without clean water and sanitation, efforts to improve health and economic opportunities will never be fully realized.

So, it was only fitting that in 2005, Congress passed the Paul Simon Water for the Poor Act, for the first time making access to clean water and sanitation for the world’s poor a priority for U.S. foreign assistance. 

And yet, in recent years, we have faced an increasing number of stories of major cities and whole areas of the planet suffering severely strained or depleted water sources — including Mexico City, Cape Town and Jakarta. Population growth, climate change and conflict have further exacerbated this challenge around the world.   

The consequences are serious. Without access to clean water, malnutrition and disease worsen, girls are unlikely to stay in school, and economic activity is stilted. In other cases, political upheaval and instability can arise over access to scarce water supplies. In fact, Paul recounted in his book that the late Prime Minister of Israel, Yitzhak Rabin, told members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that even if every other challenge in the Middle East was solved, without resolving the water problem, peace would not be possible.    

Which is why 10 years ago, Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) and former Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and I passed the Paul Simon Water for the World Act — legislation that built on the original Paul Simon Water for the Poor Act of 2005 to improve access to clean water and sanitation around the world. The legislation passed the Senate unanimously — something almost unimaginable today, but that underscores the true urgency of this issue.  

Investing in water and sanitation programs is not only the right thing to do, but the return on investment also includes an estimated six dollars for every one spent in terms of health, education and alleviating poverty.  

As a result of these two bills and sustained bipartisan funding over the last 15 years, American leadership has provided first-time sustainable access to clean water to more than 70 million people, as well as sanitation for 55 million people — incredible work I’ve sent my staff to witness in far corners of the globe.   

The programs are built around sustainability and local ownership — for example, providing clean and sustainable drinking water to underserved communities in Kenya and Senegal and helping provide sustainable hygienic sanitation options for an entire local district in Ghana and an island in the Philippines for the first time, nearly eliminating water borne diseases.  

In Malawi, restoration of the local watershed has improved not only access to clean water, but also furthered more sustainable agricultural activity and increased the number of women smallholder farmers. 

But this life-saving work is far from done. As the climate crisis worsens and water demands increase, ensuring global access to clean, sustainable water and sanitation programs is as important as ever. 

Paul sounded the alarm about this crisis looming in our world. Access to clean water should be a fundamental human right.  But around two billion people across the world still lack access to safe drinking water, making our work on these efforts as important as ever.  Let us not wait another two decades to get there.  

Dick Durbin is the Senate majority whip.