New water ideas discussed at Oklahoma City forum

An Oklahoma Christian University student, Ryan Groves, told of how he's brought water to those who didn't previously have it through a student organization he started called Wishing Well Foundation.

“In the next 10 or 20 years, all of us need to be thinking about what, or really, where we're going to be getting our water,” Groves said. “We are lucky to have an infrastructure of brilliant, creative people who are coming up with ways to solve this problem.”

Ken Surritte, of Edmond, started the nonprofit WATERisLIFE, which is now working in 31 countries to distribute water filters and other water equipment in times of water crises.

A worldwide water crisis was the topic of a performance to open the forum by four Oklahomans. An operatic singer, a slam poet and two painters used their creative talents to explain why “something doesn't add up” when it comes to the vast amounts of quality water used in the U.S. compared to other parts of the world where water is often contaminated, if even available at all.

The performance hit close to home for a forum attendee from Ghana.

“The stuff I used to drink, if I drank the same water now, I would be in the E.R.,” the emotional Ghanan man said.