Lateefah Simon: “I rise to express concern as to what is not in this bill. Thanks to the cooperation of Senator Domenici--on a piece of…”

“I rise to express concern as to what is not in this bill. Thanks to the cooperation of Senator Domenici--on a piece of legislation that is cosponsored by Senator Brown, the Presiding Officer--we did pass legislation authorizing research in the area of converting salt water to fresh water. Now, that may seem not very important, but long term, 20 years from now--if I am around 20 years from now; the Presiding Officer will be around--the headlines in the newspapers are not likely to be about oil. They are likely to be about water. Let me give a capsule of where we are in the world and what we need to do to start moving ahead in the same way that Senator Domenici has been moving ahead on mental health. Sometimes you have to lose a few battles before you win the battles. We are in a situation where, depending on whose estimate you believe, in the next 45 to 60 years we will double the world's population. Our water supply, however, is constant. Now, you do not need to be an Einstein to understand we are headed for major problems. Yet 97 percent of the world's water we cannot use. It is salt water. We live on less than 3 percent of the water. I say less than 3 percent because a lot of the fresh water is tied up in snow and icebergs and other things. We are headed toward major problems. The World Bank says in 20 years 35 nations will have severe water problems.”