Team members of the Access Water project raft along the Jinsha River on December 9 (WU WEI)

Hu Jiaojiao, an aficionado of mountain climbing and rafting, was first introduced to the Access Water project when she helped organize a lecture in 2011 for Norwegian polar explorer Liv Arnesen at the China University of Geosciences (Beijing), where she was studying for a master's degree in enterprise management.

The project, cofounded by Arnesen and U.S. explorer Ann Bancroft in 2000, is a global awareness and outreach program aimed at spurring people around the world to join hands in solving the global water crisis. The initiative seeks to educate young people and engage them through a water education curriculum.

Bancroft and Arnesen have handpicked a woman from each continent to create an international team to undertake water expeditions and educational programs on one continent every few years, starting with their Ganges expedition in 2015 and ending with a journey to Antarctica in 2026. Each of the women will represent the key water challenges on their continent.

"Liv and I were motivated to do the Access Water program because we are explorers and educators. We feel very passionate about taking care of the Earth. So, we use the expedition to talk about things that we care deeply about," said Bancroft.

"I think water issues are important because as human beings we put a lot of pressure on this wonderful natural resource, so we have to find ways to use the water for all of our diverse needs respectfully. This is a very difficult challenge for each continent to balance," she added.

"Water is a basic [resource] for all cultures, especially the old cultures in Europe and Asia, so that is why we focus on water," Arnesen said.

Water scarcity affects almost every continent and more than 40 percent of the people on the planet, according to UN-Water, a UN inter-agency coordination mechanism for freshwater-related issues. By 2025, 1.8 billion people will be living in countries or regions with absolute water scarcity, and two thirds of the world's population could be living under water stressed conditions, it has warned.

When Hu received an e-mail in 2012 from Arnesen asking if she was interested in joining the project, she accepted the offer without hesitation.

"China must be part of the project because the country has many water-related crises and challenges, such as water scarcity. China's per-capita fresh water resources… [equate to] only a quarter of the world average. Access to water is a major issue concerning human survival in China," Hu told Beijing Review.

The Ganges expedition

In October 2015, the Access Water expedition team spent 60 days traveling along India's Ganges River. First, they trekked for two weeks to the river's source, the Gangotri Glacier, where they did some rafting. Then they traveled over 2,000 km down the Ganges to Kolkata, where the river flows into the sea.

The team cooperated with the New Delhi-based the Energy and Resources Institute, a think tank conducting research for sustainable development in India and other developing countries, to teach courses to local students.

"We distributed textbooks on water education to local students before we reached their cities. After arriving, we communicated with the children and gathered them together to carry out activities. For instance, in Rishikesh, children danced and sang and drew pictures to show their wish to save the Ganges. We also shared our experiences of floating down the river with them and talked about the importance of the river to local fishermen," said Hu.

Winding its way through north India, the Ganges is the nation's longest river, flowing for around 2,525 km from the Himalayas to the Bay of Bengal. The watercourse is extremely important to the people of India, as most of the 400 million people living on its banks use the river for daily needs such as bathing and fishing. It is also significant to Hindus.

However, the Ganges is one of the most polluted rivers worldwide owing to untreated human and industrial waste.

"We chose India first to begin our seven-continent project because the river starts from a glacier and ends in the sea, and that allows for us to talk about our glacial areas and how much fresh water around the world is actually sealed in ice," said Bancroft.

"As we go down the river, we start to realize that agriculture, industry, recreation all play a part in needing the river for various things. Unlike most rivers of the world, the Ganges also has a strong religious component to it, which is both wonderful and challenging to the water," she added.

Hu Jiaojiao (third left), Ann Bancroft (fourth left), Liv Arnesen (fifth left) and other members of the Access Water project communicate with students at a primary school in Yuanyang County, Yunnan Province, on December 13 (XINHUA)

Coming to China

In December 2016, five of the eight Access Water team members engaged in a 14-day, 200-km expedition along a section of the Jinsha River from Deqen Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture to Lijiang City in southwest China's Yunnan Province. The Jinsha River is the upper reaches of the 6,300-km-long Yangtze River, China's longest river, which flows west to east from the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau to Shanghai. Both the Yangtze River and the Yellow River in the north are known by the sobriquet "Mother River of China."

Hu said the expedition in China differed in focus from the Indian trip, as the Jinsha River has well-protected water resources and surrounding natural environment. "We focused on displaying the natural environment of the Jinsha River such as the beautiful natural scenery, animals and plants to students, as well as our team spirit during rafting. This will enable the children to feel the vulnerability of human beings in the presence of nature and help them understand that we do not own nature, but are only part of it," Hu told Beijing Review.

They will also visit cultural heritage sites such as the Honghe Hani Rice Terraces in Yunnan with local children to help them inherit the previous generations' respect for water and reflect upon the importance of water to life and survival.

The terraces, inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List in 2013, are rice-growing fields in Honghe Hani-Yi Autonomous Prefecture. Over the past 1,300 years, ethnic Hani people have developed a complex system of channels to bring water from forested mountaintops to the terraces.

As a mountain climber, Hu feels deeply concerned about retreating glaciers each time she climbs a snowy mountain. At a particular observation point along the Jinsha River, the water flow has increased over the last three decades from 700 cubic meters per second to 2,200 cubic meters per second. It indicates that the glaciers feeding the river are melting over three times more quickly than they did 30 years ago.

"Glaciers are the major storage for freshwater. Therefore, if they continue to retreat, it will be challenging for future generations to have access to water," said Hu.

"In addition, rivers in China also face serious pollution, as many people lack a long-term perspective and a sustainable development mindset. We need to solve water problems through modern technology and international cooperation," she added.

Copyedited by Chris Surtees

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