March 27, 2019 - Issue: Vol. 165, No. 53 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 1st Session

[Page H2877]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            WORLD WATER DAY

  (Ms. KAPTUR asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Ms. KAPTUR. Madam Speaker, I rise to commemorate World Water Day, 
just celebrated on March 22.
  Water sustains life on Earth. It is critical to health, sanitation, 
food production, and the economy at large.
  Tragically, over 2 billion people around our world lack access to 
safe drinking water, a humanitarian crisis. Some live in our country.
  Limited access to freshwater is an ever-increasing risk to our 
national security as nations go to war over this precious resource. 
Meanwhile, terrorist organizations seek to control water resources to 
finance their destabilizing activities. That is why we must fully fund 
U.S. diplomatic leadership, to ensure that the looming conflicts over 
water can be nipped in the bud.
  My own constituents in northern Ohio are acutely aware of how 
precious access to clean water can be. In the summer of 2014, 
fertilizer runoff led to massive clusters of harmful algae blooms in 
Lake Erie, compromising water supplies to over half a million residents 
of Toledo. Flint, Michigan, shortly thereafter, endured its own water 
crisis.
  As the Appropriations Committee's Energy and Water Development, and 
Related Agencies Subcommittee chair, I can assure you that our 
committee is working tirelessly to fight for improved infrastructure, 
environmental protections, and access to clean water.
  Together, we will meet this crisis in our country and abroad and 
allow the vital human right for freshwater to belong to everyone.

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