Cotton from India, Coffee from Colombia, Soy from Brazil: Understanding the Globalization of Water

Ruth Matthews smiling for a portrait photograph

Ruth Mathews, Executive Director of Water Footprint Network

VIDEO

We face ever-increasing concerns about food security, climate change, disparity between rich and poor and our ability to meet the needs of a global population exceeding 9 billion. With more than 3 billion people living with water scarcity, degraded water quality impinging on people’s access to clean drinking water and over 90% of the world’s water consumption being for agriculture, the way we use water is a central concern for sustainable development. Understanding our water footprint, where it lands and whether it is sustainable, efficient and equitable is key to our becoming responsible global citizens. Looking forward to a future where clean fresh water is shared fairly within nature’s limits requires us to face tough questions, consider tradeoffs and take action now.

Speaker Name

Ruth Mathews

Date

Quarter

Fall

Speaker Bio

Ms. Ruth Mathews is the Executive Director of the Water Footprint Network, an international, non-profit foundation that promotes and inspires strategic action towards fair and smart water use worldwide. At the Water Footprint Network she leads a multi-cultural team in working together with companies, government, international organizations, academia and civil society in a dynamic, continuous learning community with the goal of promoting sustainable, efficient and equitable water use through the use of the global Water Footprint Assessment standard.                                                                                                                                                                    

Ruth has two decades of experience in tackling the world’s water issues and has worked in Asia, Latin America, the US and Europe. She has worked with companies to help them understand their water dependence, assess the sustainability of their water use and prioritize strategic actions in their operations and their supply chain and with governments on policy and regulatory formulation and reform. She has been involved in numerous multi-stakeholder river basin dialogues, providing leadership in finding solutions from the technical to broad policy.             

Ruth holds a Master of Science in Water Resource Management, has published articles in leading scientific journals and has presented extensively worldwide. She graduated from Fairhaven College with a concentration in “Evolving Structures: Earth Politics and the Creative Spirit.”