“Music, Citizen Engagement & Water Resource Management” to feature The Nile Project and local leaders
Durango, CO – “Music, Citizen Engagement & Water Resource Management” is the focus of special panel discussion set for Monday, Feb. 6, 2107, 7 p.m. at the Community Concert Hall in Fort Lewis College (FLC). The discussion, held in conjunction with The Nile Project, a visiting music ensemble, is free and open to the public.
“Water is the life-blood of a region,” said Charles Leslie, Concert Hall director. “Its importance was brought home to those of us here in the Four Corners region in August 2015 with the release from the Gold King Mine into the Animas River. With the panel we hope to explore how we, as individuals, can become more involved in the management of this precious and limited resource, as well as how the Nile water region parallels or diverges from the water stresses in Durango and the Four Corners.”
Panelists, to be facilitated by Durango river enthusiast Heath Corley, are Mina Girgis, producer/CEO of The Nile Project; Gary Gianniny, professor/chairman, FLC Department of Geosciences Aaron Kimple, director, Mountain Studies Program and coordinator, San Juan Headwaters program; Ty Churchwell, San Juan Mountains coordinator, Trout Unlimited and Sportsmen’s Conservation Project.
Due to overpopulation, increased demand for food, climate change and pollution, as many as two thirds of the world’s citizens by 2025 may face water-stressed conditions, severely impacting the living and economic conditions of communities, countries and regions. The Nile River basin’s 450 million inhabitants are projected to double within the next 25 years, increasing the demand for Nile water: water that is tied to all aspects of regional life. The mounting resource scarcity has contributed to a geopolitical conflict among riparian states, and The Nile Project is one effort to transform the Nile Conflict.
“The panel discussion will be of interest to a wide variety of disciplines,” said Leslie. “Of course water and environmental sciences, but also everything from political science and economics, to agriculture and anthropology.”
The Nile Project music group will take the stage at the Community Concert Hall on Tuesday, Feb. 7, 7:30 p.m. Referenced as one of the tightest cross-cultural collaborations in history, The Nile Project brings together artists from the 11 Nile countries to make new music that combines the rich diversity of one of the oldest places on Earth. The group blends traditional musical idioms into one seamless Nile sound that has been called “seductive and beautiful… nothing short of revolutionary.”
Further information is available at www.durangoconcerts.com and www.nileproject.org.
Celebrating its 20th Anniversary Season in 2017, the Community Concert Hall is a not-for-profit, multi-use performance venue located on the campus of Fort Lewis College. Its ability to bring a diverse spectrum of shows to Southwest Colorado is made possible through a partnership with the college, a state-supported, independent institution of higher education, and through financial and in-kind contributions from generous members of the community.
