1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,720 and I'll go ahead and get started. Thank you so much, Said. Again, I'm saying it correct, Said? 2 00:00:05,360 --> 00:00:08,400 Yes, Said, yeah. Cool. Wonderful. Okay, great. 3 00:00:10,640 --> 00:00:14,080 All right, well, welcome to Water Talks. I have my friend, 4 00:00:14,960 --> 00:00:25,040 Said, with me today. We met at MIT a few weeks ago at their water summit. We were asked to be a part 5 00:00:25,040 --> 00:00:31,280 of that and participate. We had a wonderful time at it. That's where I got to meet you. And Said 6 00:00:31,280 --> 00:00:37,040 has an extensive background, one of which is he is a voting member at the United Nations. 7 00:00:38,000 --> 00:00:44,160 So, Said, it's wonderful to have you with us. I appreciate your time. And why don't you tell, 8 00:00:44,960 --> 00:00:51,120 just tell us a little bit about your background and how you and I came to meet at the MIT Water 9 00:00:51,120 --> 00:00:59,440 Summit. Yeah, thank you very much, Doctor. I have my bachelor's in microbiology at University of 10 00:00:59,440 --> 00:01:07,120 Lourie. And I also proceed to my master's program at UNESCO IHE in the Netherlands, 11 00:01:07,120 --> 00:01:15,680 IHE DEPT Institute for Water Education. And it is acclaimed largest water education facility in the 12 00:01:15,680 --> 00:01:24,160 world. And of course, I work as a consultant in different forums and in different countries as 13 00:01:24,160 --> 00:01:31,120 well across the development, humanitarian and emergency contests. And of course, I've also 14 00:01:34,240 --> 00:01:41,440 traveled around so many places. And also as well, I've been to so many forums where I've presented 15 00:01:41,440 --> 00:01:48,480 a big guest speaker, like the sustainability summit in 2019 at the Abu Dhabi energy water summits. 16 00:01:49,200 --> 00:01:54,880 And at the MIT too, I participated because I wanted to share my knowledge also be able to 17 00:01:54,880 --> 00:01:58,800 learn new things for people. And that was why I actually participated. 18 00:02:01,520 --> 00:02:04,480 I love that I went to learn as well. And I sure did a lot of it. 19 00:02:04,480 --> 00:02:12,000 Yeah, the presenters were absolutely wonderful. And I took so many notes and I had such a wonderful 20 00:02:12,000 --> 00:02:18,080 time. I can't wait to participate again next year. And so first question I like to ask Saeed is, 21 00:02:19,200 --> 00:02:25,440 when you're, where is home these days? And when you're home, what's your favorite meal? 22 00:02:25,440 --> 00:02:31,600 What do you like to eat? Yeah, actually, I like to eat rice. That's my favorite meal. 23 00:02:31,600 --> 00:02:38,080 Because actually in Africa, where I come from rice is something that is very common. And 24 00:02:38,960 --> 00:02:42,960 the fight like a very delicacy that everybody likes is very easy to prepare. And you just 25 00:02:44,080 --> 00:02:45,680 eat and stuff like that. 26 00:02:48,400 --> 00:02:59,200 That's wonderful. I love that. So part of part of being a learner, and part of keeping up with 27 00:02:59,200 --> 00:03:06,800 life interesting is staying curious about things. And there's no right or wrong answer to this. But 28 00:03:06,800 --> 00:03:10,800 what are you curious about? What are you interested in these days right now in your life? 29 00:03:12,320 --> 00:03:19,120 Yeah, for me, I'm actually very much curious about water itself. That's one big thing. 30 00:03:20,320 --> 00:03:25,040 Apart from the fact that it is within my specialization, I'm also very much curious 31 00:03:25,040 --> 00:03:31,840 about the dynamics with which water has intercepted with food. It is intercepted with energy 32 00:03:32,720 --> 00:03:39,920 development, because it cut across every quarter. Almost now, we have a development in terms of 33 00:03:39,920 --> 00:03:47,040 what I use, what are being used as a kind of currency around the world now, and has also 34 00:03:47,040 --> 00:03:53,200 been listed on the stock exchange market, US stock exchange market as a currency. And 35 00:03:53,200 --> 00:04:01,520 which of course, people are now walking towards the legal status, the policy directions of how 36 00:04:01,520 --> 00:04:08,640 it's going to be. Because now, we have so many countries not trying to grow some crops in their 37 00:04:08,640 --> 00:04:14,400 country because of the high consumption water that is required for the crop. And of course, 38 00:04:14,400 --> 00:04:20,320 they try to grow it in another country and import it back to their own country. So it's kind of 39 00:04:20,320 --> 00:04:26,880 things that is growingly weird. And also the disaster issue around trans-border water cooperation, 40 00:04:27,600 --> 00:04:34,080 where we have a lot of countries fighting over water, was especially at the Nile Basin. So 41 00:04:34,080 --> 00:04:40,480 it's something that is actually very much fascinating to me. And yeah, I get surprised 42 00:04:40,480 --> 00:04:41,520 by the renown there. 43 00:04:44,000 --> 00:04:46,800 Yeah, you're right. There are very, very few people that have your 44 00:04:46,800 --> 00:04:54,400 level of understanding as far as water. People ask is water a commodity? And it already is. 45 00:04:56,640 --> 00:05:02,800 Not everyone's aware of that. But of course, it already is a commodity to some. And there 46 00:05:02,800 --> 00:05:09,120 actually are some schools of people who believe that it's a fundamental human right. And we're 47 00:05:09,120 --> 00:05:12,320 right now in the middle of a conversation trying to find out the balance between 48 00:05:12,320 --> 00:05:19,520 it being a fundamental human right and then the price point of that. How do you make a 49 00:05:19,520 --> 00:05:26,320 fundamental human right a currency and have a price point to it? So that's sort of an ongoing 50 00:05:26,320 --> 00:05:37,040 philosophical discussion that many people are sort of working on. And it's fascinating that you 51 00:05:37,040 --> 00:05:43,040 bring up the conflicts that are already happening around the world that are water-based. Can you 52 00:05:43,040 --> 00:05:44,560 talk a little bit about that? 53 00:05:45,360 --> 00:05:52,160 Yeah, concerning the conflicts, I think is very much historic. We have at a domestic level, 54 00:05:52,160 --> 00:05:56,720 we have at a national level, we have at an international level. At the domestic level, 55 00:05:56,720 --> 00:06:02,160 usually at the water points, everybody wants to have access to water. And of course, we do 56 00:06:02,160 --> 00:06:07,920 know that there's a lot of process that involves in the treatment of water. So a lot of money, 57 00:06:07,920 --> 00:06:13,280 financial capacity goes into it, and population is growing. So there's competition at the water 58 00:06:13,280 --> 00:06:19,440 points of who gets water and how to use the water itself. In so many countries, coupled with the 59 00:06:19,440 --> 00:06:24,080 fact that there's climate change. So at the water point domestically, there's conflicts, and it has 60 00:06:24,080 --> 00:06:30,080 been over the years. Not every country has been able to get water. And so we have to be very 61 00:06:30,080 --> 00:06:37,760 careful. Not every community has access to safe water infrastructure that can generate quality 62 00:06:37,760 --> 00:06:43,280 and safe water for them. So this has been a competition for long, and it has been crisis 63 00:06:43,280 --> 00:06:48,800 inherent. At the national level, there are so many regions that do not have access to water. 64 00:06:48,800 --> 00:06:54,640 Government is using water as a means of politics, where they decide to give some section, 65 00:06:55,280 --> 00:06:59,760 water infrastructure, where they will be able to have access to sufficient water, and some other 66 00:06:59,760 --> 00:07:06,960 section not quite having access to water. And people come from that region say, oh, we want 67 00:07:07,520 --> 00:07:14,000 access to water as one of the key priority political campaign points. And through that, 68 00:07:14,000 --> 00:07:19,440 they've kind of using it as a political tool, which it happens in Africa and some other part 69 00:07:19,440 --> 00:07:25,200 of the world. At the international level, management of water has become a very big problem as well. 70 00:07:25,200 --> 00:07:31,200 Uganda wanted to create dams and ensure that it mass-mised the amount of water that passed through 71 00:07:33,440 --> 00:07:40,960 their territory. And also Sudan wants to do that. Egypt wants to do likewise. And over the years, 72 00:07:40,960 --> 00:07:47,680 the Stein treaties, which of course, they've also defaults on that treaties. And so there's conflicts 73 00:07:47,680 --> 00:07:55,760 at different levels of governance, at the domestic level, at the national level, and at the international 74 00:07:55,760 --> 00:08:01,280 level. So conflict every time. So we talk about peace, most of it, and cooperation when it comes 75 00:08:01,280 --> 00:08:07,200 to water management. Yeah, thank you for speaking to that. There are very few people that have 76 00:08:08,480 --> 00:08:11,520 knowledge or understanding of the conflicts that are already happening in this, 77 00:08:12,560 --> 00:08:15,440 in parts of the world that have to do with water as a resource. In fact, 78 00:08:15,440 --> 00:08:21,680 a very good friend of mine who is sitting next to me right now, my friend Mark. Say hi. 79 00:08:21,680 --> 00:08:27,520 Yeah. Oh, my, how are you? Hi, good. Good to see you. Mark and Max. Nice to see you. 80 00:08:28,560 --> 00:08:37,600 Yeah. And we made a video in El Salvador five years ago. We have been doing a, 81 00:08:39,360 --> 00:08:45,360 we have built our own small-scale decentralized desalinization system in El Salvador that's 82 00:08:45,360 --> 00:08:52,320 been working very hard on to service 38 families. And that video, the video that we made five years 83 00:08:52,320 --> 00:08:59,760 ago, we opened up with a line that talked about many of the conflicts that will happen in the 84 00:08:59,760 --> 00:09:06,960 future will be happening over water. And it's much of what you just described. I appreciate you 85 00:09:06,960 --> 00:09:11,200 being able to educate people about that, being able to share the knowledge of that. Part of 86 00:09:11,200 --> 00:09:18,240 changing public opinion is helping people to think differently about problems. Yeah. So I just want 87 00:09:18,240 --> 00:09:23,840 to say, thank you. It's very, very hard. Part of what we do is, and part of what you do, what 88 00:09:23,840 --> 00:09:31,680 you're very good at is helping people to think differently about how to solve problems. Do you 89 00:09:31,680 --> 00:09:38,400 find that challenging? Yeah. I do find it challenging because with the impact of new 90 00:09:38,400 --> 00:09:44,000 dynamics in terms of cultural inclinations, in terms of infrastructure, there's a need for 91 00:09:44,000 --> 00:09:50,160 continual change. For instance, in the construction of Bottle, people were used to use the IO rod. 92 00:09:50,160 --> 00:09:56,080 And later on, there was an advanced knowledge that says contamination from the ferros is actually, 93 00:09:56,880 --> 00:10:03,760 it causes a lot of side effects in humans. And we advanced towards using stainless steel as one of 94 00:10:03,760 --> 00:10:12,080 the components of construction of a pipe of water. So I felt that there's a need for changing as we 95 00:10:12,080 --> 00:10:16,880 have to advance knowledge. There's always need for changing. And take for instance, also very 96 00:10:16,880 --> 00:10:24,960 general, the lead produced gas, which of course people later discovered that lead was a very 97 00:10:24,960 --> 00:10:30,720 huge contaminant when it comes to gas. And it caused a lot of side effects in humans. And it was 98 00:10:30,720 --> 00:10:40,800 that, oh, we need a lead regulated gas to be using cars. So also we have in terms of water management, 99 00:10:40,800 --> 00:10:48,480 where to place the water itself, how to supply the water itself, whether by rationing of the water 100 00:10:48,480 --> 00:10:53,760 itself, depending on the available water. So we have all those things embedded in water management. 101 00:10:53,760 --> 00:11:00,000 As knowledge grows, which of course we continue to study situations, we continue to study context, 102 00:11:00,000 --> 00:11:05,280 things needs to get improved. And we need to so that we'll be able to achieve our target 103 00:11:05,280 --> 00:11:10,480 and also provide our beneficiary with sufficient adequate amount of water, 104 00:11:10,480 --> 00:11:17,280 which is not coerced to rise as a human right. Wow. Tap taking notes as you're speaking. 105 00:11:18,880 --> 00:11:24,720 Yeah, thank you so much. I want to, I want to switch gears a little bit. And I like to talk about, 106 00:11:24,720 --> 00:11:30,400 I have a lot of younger people that watch these conversations. And so one of the things that I 107 00:11:30,400 --> 00:11:36,960 like to, one of the questions that I like to ask is to everyone that's on is, what is something that 108 00:11:36,960 --> 00:11:42,800 you have failed at in the last 12 months that you would like to talk about? And the reason why I ask 109 00:11:42,800 --> 00:11:50,160 that question is because part of being a leader is being self aware and being self aware has to do 110 00:11:50,160 --> 00:11:56,880 with thinking back on mistakes we've made and how we might do things differently. So is there anything 111 00:11:56,880 --> 00:12:01,040 in the last year that, that you wish you'd done differently? 112 00:12:02,720 --> 00:12:10,080 Yeah, I felt one of the things I would have loved to do differently is I would say 113 00:12:12,880 --> 00:12:18,240 reducing the amount of my carbon footprints. I think that would be one of the things I would 114 00:12:18,240 --> 00:12:25,840 have loved to do more less frequently. I found out that climate change is also a problem of water 115 00:12:25,840 --> 00:12:34,480 management because we could see the impact it's having in terms of changing the atmospheric 116 00:12:34,480 --> 00:12:40,800 conditions, which is also changing the hydrological conditions of water. And which of course is 117 00:12:40,800 --> 00:12:46,560 carrosteres as a result of us putting more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. I wish 118 00:12:46,560 --> 00:12:56,080 I'm able to compute my carbon footprint that I know the amount of greenhouse gases I'm contributing 119 00:12:56,640 --> 00:13:02,880 to the atmosphere. Maybe I would have taken more routes, like use more short distances, 120 00:13:02,880 --> 00:13:09,600 more short-cores roads and help in stopping the impact of climate change or water management. 121 00:13:09,600 --> 00:13:17,520 Like riding bicycles and motorcycles. Yeah, instead of driving cars as always. 122 00:13:18,400 --> 00:13:23,920 So I think those are the things that I feel I should have done differently. But that actually 123 00:13:23,920 --> 00:13:29,680 goes back to also having sufficient knowledge to empower people to be able to compute their carbon 124 00:13:29,680 --> 00:13:36,560 footprint, which will help in mitigations of climate change impacts, which is unprecedented 125 00:13:36,560 --> 00:13:46,640 as of now. Yes it is. Yes it is. I share your sentiments. So I mentioned to you that we, 126 00:13:48,240 --> 00:13:55,440 part of the work that I do revolves around decentralized desalinization. And can you 127 00:13:58,080 --> 00:14:03,280 share a little bit about that? What do you think about those ideas? And do you have any advice for 128 00:14:03,280 --> 00:14:14,080 me? Yeah, I think on decentralized desalinization, I think it's something that is awesome because we 129 00:14:14,080 --> 00:14:22,480 are moving towards those trends. A lot of countries now are in water crisis. I was opportune to go to 130 00:14:22,480 --> 00:14:30,480 Spain at one point in time to conduct a research with colleagues. And in Granada specifically, 131 00:14:30,480 --> 00:14:35,520 they had a water stress situation. The farmers did not have access to sufficient water. And 132 00:14:37,440 --> 00:14:43,680 also the other sectors competing for water, the municipality and stuff like that. And they had to 133 00:14:43,680 --> 00:14:49,600 revert back to the use of desalination plants, which of course it was very important for them. 134 00:14:49,600 --> 00:14:57,360 One, it replenishes the groundwater using the saline water. And also as an alternative to water, 135 00:14:57,360 --> 00:15:03,520 though it is quite expensive, but it's something that actually gives them leverage. So I felt that 136 00:15:03,520 --> 00:15:09,600 so many countries that are actually experiencing water stress situation and some communities that 137 00:15:09,600 --> 00:15:15,440 are very close to the ocean and not necessarily having access to fresh water reservoir. I think 138 00:15:15,440 --> 00:15:21,520 one of the things they could actually do is decentralize desalination. And we just need to 139 00:15:21,520 --> 00:15:28,000 make it more cheaper as much as possible so that people can be able to afford the amount of water 140 00:15:28,000 --> 00:15:35,600 that comes out of the saline plant. So I felt that the advice will be on affordability in terms of 141 00:15:35,600 --> 00:15:43,200 administrative costs. New technologies have been improved and in terms of machine learning 142 00:15:43,200 --> 00:15:52,320 integrated into water production systems, which of course make it more sharp and much more easy to 143 00:15:52,320 --> 00:15:59,040 be able to produce, to run the operations without much interference. So I feel that it's something 144 00:15:59,040 --> 00:16:04,800 that is important, the centralized sanitation and desalination is very important. It's something 145 00:16:04,800 --> 00:16:10,560 that is on the long run, we are going to revert to it either one way or the other. I could see the 146 00:16:10,560 --> 00:16:17,760 case in Qatar, the case in Abu Dhabi, the most especially in UAE, they actually invested in 147 00:16:17,760 --> 00:16:24,800 desalination plant a lot and that has actually helped the system. And of course, I think it's 148 00:16:24,800 --> 00:16:31,440 somewhere to go by a word. So every country needs to have information, comprehensive information 149 00:16:31,440 --> 00:16:36,240 about desalination because that's a very good option to explore. 150 00:16:36,240 --> 00:16:40,400 Well, thank you for the encouragement. As you know, with anything that is worth doing, it is 151 00:16:40,400 --> 00:16:48,960 a lot of work. It takes 100% dedication, but it means a lot to me to hear the encouragement from 152 00:16:48,960 --> 00:17:00,800 you. So I really appreciate it. Well, I have absolutely enjoyed having a conversation with 153 00:17:00,800 --> 00:17:08,400 you. I certainly hope that we're able to do this again and do it more frequently. You have a lot 154 00:17:08,400 --> 00:17:17,920 to say and a lot more to say. So one of the things that I like to do as I conclude these 155 00:17:18,640 --> 00:17:23,520 water talks, I like to keep them in 20 minute segments. So again, thank you for your time. But 156 00:17:23,520 --> 00:17:32,320 what are some last thoughts that we need to hear from Saheed today? What are some last things that 157 00:17:32,320 --> 00:17:38,000 you would like to share? I think one of the things I would like to share is we need to collectively 158 00:17:38,000 --> 00:17:44,000 improve on the water literacy of people because that is very important and people need to be aware 159 00:17:44,000 --> 00:17:51,680 that water is scarce. It might be available in a vast amount of quantity for us to use. So I think 160 00:17:51,680 --> 00:17:59,840 it's not even distributed everywhere in the world. There's some that to get 10 liters of water is as 161 00:17:59,840 --> 00:18:07,680 hard as anything else. So we need to be well informed about domestic management of water, 162 00:18:09,040 --> 00:18:12,960 industrial management of water, which of course is very good. And this surrounds 163 00:18:13,600 --> 00:18:17,600 into water literacy. Water literacy needs to be taken very seriously with people. 164 00:18:17,600 --> 00:18:26,160 And people need to know that keeping the little amount of water for a productive means is very 165 00:18:26,160 --> 00:18:34,480 important in sustainability of our water resources. Okay, last thing, Saheed, have you ever been to 166 00:18:34,480 --> 00:18:42,720 California? Currently, I'm in Harrisburg. So I hopefully, I wish to go to California one day. 167 00:18:42,720 --> 00:18:50,080 You're in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania? Pennsylvania, yes. Ah, okay. Well, if you come to California, 168 00:18:50,080 --> 00:18:53,600 can you message me? Because I'd like to have lunch with you. I'll buy you lunch. 169 00:18:54,160 --> 00:18:58,720 Oh, great. Great. I will be very, very much to be my pleasure. And if I'm in California, 170 00:18:58,720 --> 00:19:04,880 I will try as much as possible to give you a call. I will try to get your contact. Maybe you could 171 00:19:04,880 --> 00:19:11,280 send it to me via LinkedIn and I will do that. And by the way, only call me if you have any questions. 172 00:19:11,280 --> 00:19:16,880 By the way, I only contributed to the quadrennial policy review of the United Nations. I got training 173 00:19:16,880 --> 00:19:21,840 from UNITRA and also make some contributions. And yeah, I think that's what I'm not really able to 174 00:19:21,840 --> 00:19:28,960 remember at the UN. Oh, yeah, got it. Thank you, brother. Welcome. Well, Saheed, I appreciate your 175 00:19:28,960 --> 00:19:35,120 time and have a beautiful day. And I hope to look forward to talking to you again soon. Thank you 176 00:19:35,120 --> 00:19:39,600 so much, my friend, Saheed. Thank you, brother. Sure. Thank you very much. Okay. All right. Bye. 177 00:19:39,600 --> 00:19:43,840 Bye.