PUBH 385 - The Impact of Clean Water: Honduras and Navajo Nation

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SP. Rural communities in Honduras and Navajo Nation must rely on localized systems for clean water, usually point-of-use filtration. Students in this course will examine what types of interventions are sustainable and truly helpful. Students will learn how the availability of clean water relates to nutrition, poverty, life expectancy, education, employment, and income of the local community. Students will discern the nature of the problem regarding clean water availability on a local, national, and global level; and also wrestle with potential solutions to this pervasive and complex problem. Students will discuss the role of clean water in promoting equity, and access to clean water as a basic human right. Students will integrate various disciplines together to propose sustainable solutions that are culturally appropriate and charitably nontoxic. All enrolled students should plan on traveling over spring break to either Honduras or Navajo Nation. Travel costs will be paid for through a grant for the Clean Water Institute of Calvin University. This course carries the core designation of Contemporary Challenges and Enduring Questions, and satisfies the core tags for Environmental Sustainability, and Global Regions and Culture.