John Briscoe discusses water as a platform for development (video)

In Jonathan Shaw’s “The Water Tamer,” from the January-February 2012 issue, Professor John Briscoe, who worked on water projects for governments and the World Bank for decades before joining Harvard in 2009, explains that water issues are “part religion, part politics, part civilization.” Last summer, as part of the Harvard Water Security Initiative, Briscoe decided it was time for an experiment: he traveled to Pakistan with four Harvard students from four different disciplines—law, public policy, mechanical engineering, and environmental engineering—to complete a firsthand investigation of the complicated issues surrounding the 1,800-mile-long Indus River. Watch a video of Briscoe and his team discussing their work with the Friends of Democratic Pakistan water sector task force, explaining how they integrated their various disciplines to brainstorm solutions for the arid country's critical irrigation and agricultural problems, and presenting their plans for future involvement in water issues around the globe.