The Fate of the Earth: Our Waters Symposium, hosted by MSU’s Environmental Science and Policy Program, WaterCube NRT and the MSU Water Alliance on March 20-21, 2025, gathered experts from academia, industry and government to discuss the world’s water-related challenges and feasible solutions. 

The event featured several thought-provoking panels, including one on priorities for water science, engagement and education featuring Claire Chase—a Senior Economist with the World Bank’s Water Global Practice.

The keynote address, Moving towards a Water-secure Future, was delivered by Dr. Annalise Blum, Former Deputy Assistant Secretary at the Department of the Interior, and emphasized the importance of non-stationary, multidisciplinary approaches to global water security.

The Water Alliance sat down with Claire Chase and Annalise Blum to discuss their interests in environmental and water-related work and the most pressing water challenges for the next 10-15 years. Blum offered advice for scientists or students wanting to work with agencies, while Chase provided guidance for upcoming scientists working in development.

Interview with Annalise Blum, a hydrologist with expertise in climate, water and national security policy

Q: How did you become interested in environmental/water-related issues and what inspired you to focus on your current area of work?

Annalise Blum: I’m from California originally and growing up there we were often in drought. So, from an early age, that got me thinking about water and why it was so important. My freshman year of high school, for my history paper, I wrote about the Ganges River and it was so fascinating learning about the ways that the river is contaminated with E. coli, but it’s religiously so important to so many people. Thinking about that intersection, and challenges, and managing scientific, cultural, political [and] economic realities of a river was something that really got me excited about working on water.

In college, I was part of what was called ‘the poop group’. We didn’t study poop, we studied clean water, but I had the opportunity to work with teams of researchers in East Africa on ensuring that people had access to safe drinking water and sanitation. It was really inspiring and exciting to be part of that work and try to move forward helping make sure everyone in the world had access to these basic needs.

Q: What are some interesting things you’ve learned while working in this area?

Annalise Blum: Another reason I’m so interested in water is that it’s so tangible for people—it’s something that everyone drinks every day and uses every day, so I think that it can be an entry point whether it’s helping communities build trust by managing shared water resources together, or, when I worked at the Department of Defense, helping people who worked there understand what impacts of climate change mean to them. 

Q: What do you see as some of the most pressing water-related issues that need to be solved over the next 10-15 years, and how can we begin to address these issues?

Annalise Blum: Thinking about the different drivers of non-stationarity, so climate change, environmental degradation, all of the different ways humans are impacting water resources—that means that we can’t expect our water resources in the future to be like the past. We’re going to need to figure out how do we make decisions when we build infrastructure, for example, knowing that future storms, and rainfall, and water availability are going to be different than they have been in the past. How do we take our understanding of what has happened in the past, combined with predictions of what is likely to happen in the future, and make the best decisions we can now.

Q: Where do you see opportunities for MSU scientists based on current needs and resources?

Annalise Blum: I think this is where partnerships are so key. I can tell from the [symposium] that MSU is a place where there are lots of amazing existing partnerships happening, and kind of the land-grant university approaches [through] Extension. It’s so important for making sure that research that’s being done is useful to decision makers, or those who may not have a science background. Finding the people who could use that science and talking to them and understanding their needs so you can ensure that what you’re doing is useful and provides societal benefit—that can help stakeholders and community members make better decisions.

Q: What advice can you offer for scientists or students who want to work with agencies?

Annalise Blum: I think now is a really good time to seek out collaboration and opportunities with state governments—we need the expertise of MSU students to solve local [and] national and global challenges. I think finding opportunities where they are, whether it’s working with state government or seeking out different fellowship opportunities like the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s Science and Technology Policy Fellowship [which] places scientists in government positions. I think finding ways to understand these perspectives and get insights into policy and decision makers can help students make those connections.

Q: What do you see as some of the most pressing water-related issues that need to be solved over the next 10-15 years, and how can we begin to address these issues?

Claire Chase: The challenge we face is twofold. On the one hand, needing to provide water supply and sanitation services to the 2.2 billion people that lack access to safe drinking water and the 3.5 billion [people] that lack access to safe sanitation, expanding coverage to reach those in need. On the other hand, we must safeguard water resources for the future. This creates a real tension, one that we frequently see in our engagements with country governments. With limited resources, the question becomes: where should the focus be? Should it be on sustaining and protecting water resources for the long term, or on delivering essential services today? 

I would say a major issue that we see preventing us from achieving some of these outcomes comes down to financing. The World Bank did a study [which] looked at total spending in the water sector, and globally, annually, the total spent is $165 billion which is $136 billion less than what is needed to achieve the SDG—SDG 6. This spending equates to less than 1% of GDP for [130 developing countries]; 90% of that is coming from the public sector, with less than 2% from the private sector. This underscores the significant gap and the need to better leverage private finance to complement existing investments. 

Another surprising piece of evidence that came out of that report is around the inefficiencies in spending. Even when budgets are allocated, 28% of water funds go unspent. There’s a lot of funding that’s already in the system that we could be making better use of to achieve some of these outcomes.

Q: Where do you see opportunities for MSU scientists based on current needs and resources?

Claire Chase: Two areas stand out: one is around the digital technologies and innovation. There’s a lot of data in the water sector, but we’re not really capturing it, and we’re not using it to generate insights, and to make predictions and to make better decisions. All the innovations around AI and sensor technologies—these already are having a big impact, particularly in high income countries, [but] not so much in developing countries.

The second one, which is a bit more challenging, is the valuation of water. Valuing water is, I think, a fundamental crutch that we have in the sector that is preventing us from making better decisions and making better use of the resource. That’s not going to be easy because it means that some actors that have been paying very little or nothing will need to start paying for the water in some way whether it’s paying for cleanup of the pollution or paying for the actual extraction of the water. It also means finding ways to ensure access to clean water for those who cannot afford to pay. 

Q: Do you have any advice for upcoming scientists working in development?

Claire Chase: I’ve seen a lot of really good research being done here [at the symposium] that is so applicable to our clients in developing countries. I think connecting those international stakeholders with the evidence and getting more involved in trying some of those research studies in developing countries is a really good step. We can learn a lot from the cross fertilization of knowledge and evidence generation between what’s happening in Michigan and the challenges that we’re seeing in other countries.

Building a water-secure future

The Fate of the Earth: Our Waters Symposium provided rich dialogue on the future of water management, from local efforts to global challenges. With a growing urgency to address water-related and environmental issues, these conversations play an important part in building a sustainable and resilient future for our water and other resources. As both Annalise Blum and Claire Chase pointed out, the path forward involves enhancing our understanding of water systems, and providing innovation to areas like data collection, resource valuation and sustainable infrastructure.

Conversations at the symposium reflect a growing consensus that no single solution will solve the water crisis. Instead, it will take a combination of technology, policy and interdisciplinary collaboration to build a water-secure future for generations to come.

Story by Aja Witt