by the time I’m done with this speech as
many as 20 children will have perished
succumbing to waterborne illness it’s a
sobering statistic to be sure and
definitely not the type of thing one
normally starts a speech off with but
the fact of the matter is a child dies
every minute or every minute of every
day because they lack access is
something that so many of us excuse me
so many of us here take for granted it’s
a it’s just a startling statistic to
really realize that but then you add in
to the fact that here we turn on the
faucet water comes flowing forth
something that we see every day but for
more than 600 million people in the
world that’s not their reality more than
500 million people lack any access to an
improved water source whatsoever another
hundred and twenty million people have
access to water but that water could be
just as deadly as having none at all the
end result is eight hundred forty
thousand adults dying every year because
they lack access to water in many parts
of the world women and children spend as
many as a hundred and forty million
hours every day just gathering water for
their families and for their villages
that’s the man our equivalent of
building 20 Empire State buildings every
day seven days a week 365 days a year in
these areas women will walk miles one
way to the banks of a dangerous river
fill containers full of water and then
bear that heavy burden all the way back
to their village only to have to
complete that journey again and again
and again now as I said before we turn
on the faucet here and water comes out
it’s a mundane occurrence but for them
it would mean so much more means freedom
freedom to pursue greater endeavors
providing access to one basic amenity
could be just the very catalyst it
allows people to focus on even greater
things
imagine what these women and children
could do with the time if they could
pump water directly from the ground in
their village instead of having to track
miles to get this water they could spend
more time caring for younger family
members or elderly family members better
yet they could go to school and get an
education learn skills new ideas that
will not only improve their lives for
the lives of their families and of their
villages in a ways that they haven’t
even imagined yet all by providing
access to something that we take for
granted here water another basic amenity
that a lot of us here take for granted
is a complete luxury in many other parts
of the world electricity when I go back
to my hotel room tonight I’ll open the
door and sink tively reach for the wall
and flip a switch and presto they’ll be
light but in fifteen percent of the
world they don’t have regular access to
electricity that may not seem like a
particularly large percentage but keep
in mind there’s more than 7 billion
people on our planet do that math that
means more than 1 billion people don’t
have access to electricity if you wanted
to count all of those people tallying
one person per second it would take you
longer than 31 years to count everybody
who doesn’t have electricity something
we consider a basic amenity many of
these places that don’t have access to
electricity are incredibly hot climates
take India for example they have been a
booming economy that’s lifted a lot of
people out of poverty but they still
have a tremendously large population of
people for whom electricity is a luxury
that they can’t afford now know that in
India the average temperature in the
country’s interior ranges between 90 and
104 degrees sure succumb is no surprise
then that the number one use for an
electrical connection is to run a fan
it’s a simple appliance probably every
one of us here has one in fact it’s so
simple that we probably don’t even use
it because we have something even better
air conditioning but imagine life on 100
degree day when you don’t even have a
fan let alone air conditioning to try to
ease that oppressive heat
imagine how difficult it would be to
focus on studying or reading to a child
it’s hard to focus on the basic things
or is hard to focus on improving your
life in greater ways but even your basic
needs aren’t being met the second most
common use for an electrical connection
is to run a refrigerator now a
refrigerator is more than just a modern
convenience that keeps us from having to
go to the market every day to procure
food refrigeration staves off bacterial
growth that can result in dangerous if
not deadly foodborne illnesses an
electrical connection can really provide
meaningful change to people who don’t
have that luxury it can be the
difference between comfort or heat
stroke good healthy nourishing food or
food borne illnesses or even death
electricity could provide the light a
child needs to read a book that inspires
her to take her place among the next
generation of innovators and I’ll change
world for us the world for us in ways we
haven’t even imagined yet there’s a
reason the light bulb is the symbol of
inspiration and brilliant ideas
rightfully so a lot of us looked at
technology for the solutions of these
problems also rightfully so we tend to
assume that a lot of these solutions
will be complicated and expensive we
look at wind turbines as a solution to a
lot of problems here in America will see
hillsides covered in hundreds of wind
turbines that kill three hundred
thousand birds every year for a
technology to be considered truly green
shouldn’t be compatible with LR every
element of our environment but what if
solution the solution could be found in
something simple what if thorough was
even more prophetic than we first
what if nature provided the solution in
fact Nature has the term is called
biomimicry and the idea is to create
something that moves with nature in
harmony with it in concert with it not
fighting it but moving with it like a
bird doesn’t flight
imagine what’s something that is simple
to build built using scrap materials
placing the hands of the very people who
need it most imagine what that could do
now we’re not talking about ideas idea
of simple to build you don’t need an
engineering degree or even manufacturing
experience to put this together this is
truly simple built using scrap materials
imagine what that could do to change
somebody’s life those women and children
that we spoke about earlier they could
focus on education instead of irrigation
fewer parents would know the pain of
losing a child before his or her time
families could gather around the light
of a lamp watching their child read
their first book cooled by the breeze of
a fan we have a vision of tariff in that
vision is a world where everybody has
access to most basic needs water and
electricity and a tariff and we’re
creating products that do just that give
everybody what they need to improve the
quality of life for people around the
world especially those who need it most thank you