Welcome to the Getting to Water project
Getting To Water is a collection of case studies about how water is being shared and protected around the world. These are local to international examples of prudent management of water which is shared, often between stakeholders with very different agendas. The culmination of this project is a book entitled: Getting to Water: How neighbor and nation share our most precious resource. I hope you will visit this site often as I travel regionally and internationally to collect these inspiring stories which can be used to guide anyone charged with or interested in helping to manage their water resources.
No water, no life. No blue, no green.
Sylvia Earle
Getting to Water Blog

The Great Equalizer: Could Water Offer Hope in a Divided World?
Water’s everywhere, right? Actually, it’s not. Sure, it’s in your coffee, and the salad you ate for lunch. You may have just given some to your dog and somewhere, someone is using it to put out a fire, scrub for surgery, clean a wound. It may have even just carried...
read moreThe Daunting Danube: Joining ranks to achieve the impossible
The Danube River is a workhorse, and more. Across nearly 3,000 kilometers (1,777 miles) this river in Eastern Europe provides drinking water, power, navigation and transport for approximately 81 million people throughout 18 countries. Along this route it also supports...
read moreCrossing Lines: Reaching Across the Table to Share Water
Apparently it takes the village to make a water agreement. At least that’s what I have found in my research on how people share water around the globe. It takes participation from all relevant users. If they’re not all included, there’s likely to be trouble down the...
read moreA Vision: Getting Down to Water
About 15 years ago, a single Lord Mayor in Brisbane, South East Queensland, Australia, made a small change that sent ripples into the world of water. This brilliant idea was based simply on the concept of giving citizens information about the quality of their own...
read moreThe Great Equalizer: Could Water Offer Hope in a Divided World?
Water’s everywhere, right? Actually, it’s not. Sure, it’s in your coffee, and the salad you ate for lunch. You may have just given some to your dog and somewhere, someone is using it to put out a fire, scrub for surgery, clean a wound. It may have even just carried...
read moreThe Daunting Danube: Joining ranks to achieve the impossible
The Danube River is a workhorse, and more. Across nearly 3,000 kilometers (1,777 miles) this river in Eastern Europe provides drinking water, power, navigation and transport for approximately 81 million people throughout 18 countries. Along this route it also supports...
read moreCrossing Lines: Reaching Across the Table to Share Water
Apparently it takes the village to make a water agreement. At least that’s what I have found in my research on how people share water around the globe. It takes participation from all relevant users. If they’re not all included, there’s likely to be trouble down the...
read moreA Vision: Getting Down to Water
About 15 years ago, a single Lord Mayor in Brisbane, South East Queensland, Australia, made a small change that sent ripples into the world of water. This brilliant idea was based simply on the concept of giving citizens information about the quality of their own...
read moreFeatured Media
Dallas Crum // Co-Founder of Vivid Roots
In Episode 4 of the Disruptors for Good podcast I spoke with Dallas Crum, co-founder of Vivid Roots, a social impact travel/apparel company impacting lives in Guatemala and Ecuador.
Who Owns Water
by David Hanson, documentary film maker and writer.
Two brothers, David and Michael Hanson, maneuver the complex waters of the ACF basin, shared by Alabama, Georgia and Florida, in southeastern USA, in this insightful film. Click the image to watch the trailer.
The New Way Forward
How California farmers, fish and fowl are thriving in one place
No Going Back
How farmers are helping to bring back the salmon in California
New Reservoir – Lee Brenneisen Foundation
How Innov8Africa is providing clean water for school children and communities in Africa
Join the Getting to Water project!
Join the Getting to Water Project! Please feel free to share any case studies or stories, large or small. Even one individual’s contribution to sharing or protecting water is valuable.
Your donations are greatly appreciated and make travel and support possible during the research and writing of this book, which you can follow on this website. All donations are tax deductible. Thank you for your support!
Thanks for the generous contributions from the following donors:

Kathleen Rugel has spent most of her life pursuing science and art. She enjoyed a satisfying career as a professional artist and teacher focusing on calligraphy, biology, chemistry and water resource issues. In 2013 she received a doctorate in Aquatic Ecology from the University of Georgia’s Odum School of Ecology, studying aquifer-stream connectivity. She is currently working as an independent researcher investigating and writing a book called Getting to Water®, about the equitable sharing and protection of limited water resources around the world. She is a Practice and Policy Fellow at the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC) in Annapolis, MD, and lives in southwestern Georgia, USA.
Contact: kathleenrugel@gmail.com
Phone: +1 (706) 410 4952

Bradley Currey is a benefactor for the Getting to Water® project. Mr. Currey is the retired Chairman and CEO of Rock-Tenn Company, a manufacturer of packaging and recycled paperboard products with over $1 billion in sales. Mr. Currey serves on the Board of Directors and Executive Committee of Rock-Tenn Company and Genuine Parts Company, and on the Board of Directors of Brown & Brown, Inc. and Enzymatic Deinking Technologies, LLC. He also served as Deputy Chairman and Chairman of the Board of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. Currey is a trustee emeritus of Emory University, and served as a director of the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce for many years.

Flint Riverkeeper, Inc., acts as a fiscal agent to receive and distribute funds raised for the Getting to Water® project. The Flint Riverkeeper (FRk) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) established in 2008 with the goal of protecting the Flint River in its most natural state for future generations to enjoy.
Contact: flintriverkeeper.org
Phone: +1 (229) 435-2241

The National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC) is a multi-disciplinary think tank which seeks to bring together global participants from the natural and social sciences to help resolve complex socio-environmental issues. Dr. Margaret Palmer, Director of SESYNC, generously provides travel funding to the Getting to Water project through the Practice and Policy Fellowship Program. SESYNC is located in Annapolis, MD, and is supported by funding from the National Science Foundation (DBI- 1052875). For more information visit www.sesync.org
Here are a few links to groups working to manage water around the world
Who Owns Water?– a thought-provoking film on shared waters – Visit »
Delaware River Basin Commission – Visit »
Upper Colorado River Basin Commission – Visit »
International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River – Visit »
Pani Panchayat- Communal Groundwater Management, India – Visit »
Innov8AFRICA: providing clean water, education and innovation in Africa – Visit »
All text and image content is the exclusive property of their owners | Copyright © 2018 ~ Kathleen Rugel
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