Good morning. Good afternoon. Welcome everyone and thank you for tuning in to this discussion on Beyond the UN Water Conference. Leaders on what's next. I'm Tanya Strauss, Head of Food and Water at the World Economic Forum. And it's my privilege to host this important conversation, which is being broadcasted on our World Economic Forum platforms and through our partners at YouTube and LinkedIn. 3.6 billion people are water insecure. That is nearly half our global population. And our demand for this precious resource is only growing. Meanwhile, availability and access to water is grossly misunderstood to be infinite. And as a society and as economies, we are not taking care to value this limited global common good. And this changes now. Last week, the UN convened the first water conference in almost 50 years here in New York, co-chaired by the governments of the Netherlands and Tajikistan. A watershed moment, an opportunity to take on a shared responsibility across the public, social and private sectors, where leaders, institutions and individuals committed to stewardship for water action through dedicated partnerships, finance and innovation on water action. And a unanimous call for stronger commitments to breaking the silo within the water community to show that taking action on water protects livelihoods and economic resilience of people, especially of the most vulnerable communities, but also business supply chains. It achieves food security and a better way to produce and consume our food. It helps safeguard nature and Earth's ecosystems. And yes, water is helping us achieve tough goals on climate change faster, both related to mitigation and adaptation. We already have many of the solutions, many of the technologies. Now we need to invest at scale in deploying those existing and fostering entrepreneurship for those technologies and solutions to develop new fit for purpose strategies and wood speed. It's my distinct honor and pleasure to introduce Hank Ovenk, special envoy for water from the government of the Netherlands. Welcome, Hank. You've been working tirelessly for years and certainly in the last 12 months, traveling around the world, raising awareness, creating a mobilization of leaders across sectors for water action. Was the conference a success? And what are your key takeaways for our public today? Thanks, Tanya. And thanks all for joining. It's a pleasure to be here again at the forum here in New York a couple of days after the ending of the conference. The success of the conference will have to be measured in the future. But I think in the context of bringing quite a bit of the world together, we had more newly accredited organizations from across the world, private sector, NGOs and others. We had larger and smaller scale networks here and a suite of high level representatives from government. It was also the largest gathering here at the UN when it comes to a conference. So the UN was bustling for a lot of activity. And I think that is one part of the conference was really focused on action. There was no negotiation. It was really about committing ourselves as a world, public and private, and better in their coalitions to commit to action. The second thing I would say, you could say with debt, at least as the ingredients to be successful. The second thing is that water is being so cross cutting, connecting to everything life, health, insecurity, our economies, our cities, our infrastructure, businesses and investments. Climate, of course, and the environment and food and energy. So you see it across everything. I think for the first time at the UN, at that stage at the end in the ending on Friday, we saw a message coming from the world from leaders, public and private, saying, hey, water in this cross cutting capacity has to be recognized as a global common good, but can also be addressed in a very comprehensive way. And I was listening back to how the co-chairs of the most important dialogues of this conference reported back. And I think I've never heard such a comprehensive, concise message coming from the UN when we were talking about these complex issues. And I also think that we prevented not to again fall back into our silos. And I think that is too often in our world, you know, we complain and we see also the failure of our fragmented government, but also our fragmented private sector and finance sector. And for once this was bypassed at least, but hopefully that bypass shows a way forward that in this far more collaborative and comprehensive way, with dedicated leadership and better capacity and organization, we can move ahead. So the actions, the coalitions, public and private from across the world, as well as this concise message on the importance of water and its cross cutting nature really showed that there is an opportunity that we now really have to capitalize on. Thanks so much, Hank. And it's been inspiring to see the just the sheer numbers, but also the sectors that are showing up for water action, as you said, 700 commitments and growing on the water action agenda. Over 6000 people gathered here in New York representing many, many, many more networks and institutions that are really taking seriously exactly what you're describing as a bypass or breakdown of the silos so that we can come together around this agenda. We're joined this morning or this afternoon, depending on where you're tuning in from, by leading experts and champions that represent a lot of those sectors. And I'm so pleased to introduce, starting with Gary White, the co-founder and CEO of water.org and water equity. Usha Rao Manari, our associate administrator of the UNDP, United Nations Development Programs. Beth Kolji, the co-founder of Magic Water, great name. Jim Andrew, the executive vice president and chief sustainability officer of PepsiCo. And before we turn to our esteemed panelists, we have a special message from Gary and a familiar face to so many of us, Matt Damon, both an actor and also a co-founder with Gary on water.org and water equity on the importance of the UN conference and why this matters to so many people around the world. Please watch this video. Hi, I'm Matt Damon, co-founder of water.org and water equity. It's my great pleasure to join you at the UN 2023 water conference, a gathering that can change the course for the global water crisis we're facing. Access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene is the most basic human need for health and well-being, a declared human right. But billions of people around the world still lack access to safe drinking water and a toilet. More than 90% of disasters are water related and climate change is adding to that pressure. And our need for water keeps growing, with pressures on fresh water projected to increase by more than 40% by 2050. But despite these challenges, there is still time to break through to a water secure planet. But we must act now. Hello, I'm Gary White, co-founder of water.org and water equity. The good news is there are solutions. With our organizations, we seek to do more, faster and in partnership with others to unlock the flow of financing for water and sanitation. Together, we've reached more than 53 million people with access to safe water and sanitation through small, affordable loans. But more is needed, more financing and investment, more innovation, more partnerships and more ambition. We're encouraged that these are also the goals of this conference, and we are committed to doing our part. In fact, we've launched our most important initiative to date, a water and climate initiative to reach 100 million people living in poverty with safe water and sanitation solutions. So thank you for this opportunity to speak to you all, and we wish everyone a successful conference. Thanks so much. And Gary, maybe just coming to you first. I mean, we want to thank both you and Matt Damon for the championship that you've been showing tirelessly for many years around water equity and the country level. As you said, we need more partnerships, we need more investment and we need more ambition. Reaching 100 million people with safe water will take a global community. What are your thoughts coming out of the conference as well as you're asked to the global community on how to achieve such an ambition? Great. Well, thanks, Tanya, for having us here. I really appreciate that already we're following up on the conference. So hopefully everything that all the energy came out of that won't be lost as more conversations like this continue to take place. So thanks for convening us on this. Yeah, I think that, you know, having been in this sector for, well, since the mid 80s, when the water decade was taking place after Mar-a-del-Plata, which was the last big water conference organized by the UN, we had the water decade and obviously we fell short during that time. So it's good that we're finally, finally bringing the focus back. And, you know, some of the things that I saw different from, you know, conferences that I was at back in the 80s is I think it's important to point out. I think back then it was really just about, you know, about water and about really the local governments and bilateral and multilateral trying to solve this problem kind of in a vacuum. And obviously that we felt far short in terms of the capital that was around to solve the problem back then. And that was one of the major failures was not mobilizing enough capital. And when I draw the contrast between that and now, capital was definitely on the other front burner throughout the convenings of UN. Frankly, for the last, you know, five to ten years, capital has been really important and not just municipal and bilateral, multilateral capital, but the private sector capital. And that's what I see really changing. That's one thing. The second thing I see changing is that climate is front and center now. And there's a potential to leverage a lot that's happening with climate in terms of different funds that are focused on climate and leveraging them, bending them more towards water and wastewater treatment as well. And so to me, you know, back in the mid 80s, nobody was talking about climate in the context of water. And so there's a potential to kind of use this confidence to drive much more capital investment into the space. The third thing I see is, is corporates, you know, you know, we have Jim here from PepsiCo representing just one hundreds, not thousands of corporates now that are leaning into this in a big way.  And now corporations are a central part of the mix. And I see that manifest in really positive ways, like the Water Resilience Coalition, which is part of the, you know, the UN Global Compact. You know, it's more than 30 companies now, fortunately 100 companies especially, really focused on this. They have a goal of leading into this in a way to reach 300 million people with water and sanitation over the next 15 years. And so what we're doing in partnership with them around finance is helping them and their corporations use their ballot sheets to invest in water and sanitation infrastructure in a way that gives investors an opportunity for financial returns, as well as huge impact around the SDGs and ESG. And so I have a lot of hope with so many more, you know, I could say this consulance of events coming together that we will be able to achieve real impact. And I know we're planning on doing our part with that 100 million person commitment where our intent is to raise a billion dollars in terms of water and climate funds to be able to do that. And so I hope that what we're doing and what the collaboration and all these different partnerships are doing will allow us to meet the SDG number six as we go forward. Gary, thanks so much. So climate finance, you know, thinking about the cross-cutting ways in which these solutions can actually come together and redirect some of that investment, as you're saying, into solutions that include water. Maybe we can come back to some of the aspects of that return on water, return on your investment in terms of water in just a moment. Usha, I wonder if I could come to you. I know you've been a longtime advocate and champion of water issues both at the global level, at the country level. From UNDP's perspective, and as we just heard from Hank, this breakdown of fragmentation across the UN agencies and across the UN community, do you see new models of multilateralism and sort of collective action coming as a result of last week's convenings? Thank you, Tanya.  Gary, how are you? I haven't seen you in a long time. It's good to see you, Jim. Tanya, I think you raised some important issues and I enjoyed very much what Gary said and resonated completely. Here's the thing, and what Hank said. As Hank said, the conference happened after I think 47 years, which in and of itself is a huge victory. The conference created, if you will, a focus on water which is much more connected in nature and not as fragmented and reactive as it has been. So it's not that we've lost focus on water. We all live with it every day, but the action on water has been fragmented and it has been reactive. When there's a crisis, somebody does something, but when there's not, we don't think about it. What the conference, I believe, has done is put a spotlight on a few things. One, how to look at water differently. So far, when we think of water, we tend to think of access. We tend to think of blue water and so on and so forth. The conference, and some of the reports, like the report of the global commission on the economics of blue water, has pointed out that you have to look at water as an entire site, a whole water site, starting with green water and blue water, green infrastructure, green infrastructure, everything should be taken account into when you look at water. Second, it also proposed that nobody, no country, no company can deal with the water issue by itself just simply because it is such an interconnected resource. And so collective action, whether it's multilateral or otherwise, or multi-stakeholder, is absolutely necessary. Third, it also brought to the top that the way we think about water has to be much more granular and much more focused. So whether we're talking about finance, whether we're talking about governments, innovation, social inclusion, it's not about looking at these in silos as unfortunately we tend to do, but to bring them together in a much more connected way. So for example, how do you look at bringing policy and finance and social interventions in order to find solutions in the water sector? And finally, and I'm going to stop there, I think what the conference showed was an enormous, and Hank you mentioned this, enormous political will to do something. What was it? I think 180 or 90 countries have participated. There were many agreements, many people, as Hank said, stood up at the closing session and said we want this to happen, we want this to be the decade of water action. And so I think at the final point, what I'm looking forward to, as you said, is that we are finally at an inflection point of doing something about an important resource for the next decade. Thanks and back to you, Tanya. Thanks so much, Usha, and I think it's really encouraging to start to hear that it's not just the agendas that need to come together, but like you said, the integration of these levers across policy, finance, technologies, and other innovations that can really help to break those silos and create action on the ground. We also heard from the Secretary-General the announcement on Friday around appointing a special envoy for water to help coordinate across the various aspects of the UN that would really hold that shared responsibility and coordination role and more to come in the coming months on how we see that sort of unfolding as a key lever towards those outcomes. I wanted to switch gears a bit since we've all touched on the role of innovation and welcome you, Beth. You know, the forum has been working through our uplink platform, which is an open innovation platform together with HCL, on fostering a pipeline of innovators or what we're calling aquapreneurs. And a number of these aquapreneurs were brought also to New York to the UN Water Conference last week around this very critical unlock to say, how do we create that enterprise and foster those ecosystems that can help technology solutions already out there and very much the ones we need yesterday to start to look at the scale and impact to these challenges. Beth, over to you on the types of solutions you're seeing and what you took away from last week's conference. Yeah, thank you so much and it's a pleasure to be here and talk on behalf of other individuals who see and also more so in the massive market. So, you know, it was mentioned over and over again that the technology we give for the water crisis that we are facing already exists. So it's about using that gap and actually bringing it to the community that actually needs them. And one of the ways to do that is financing. So we need financing, we need investment. But you find that most startups in the water sector have new challenges, which are most startups need advanced practical investment. And these have long-term experience and you find that, you know, and I'm very happy about I found a lot of people being financed and a lot of investors that are in the water sector. But a lot of propositions were primarily based on investing in large-scale infrastructure and utility companies. So there's this gap where, you know, all these infrastructure and utilities companies cannot be able to reach and that's where the enterprise can be. They're able to reach their reachable. And how do you finance this? So for us to scale and to implement these water solutions as much as the public entities are required and are necessary, also there is necessity for private utilities. And for these innovative financing solutions are required, which are more patient because most of these project and programs and startups require a huge capital investment. You find that, you know, high-stage kind of financing for tickets below 250,000 USD are not available. So creating this gap and finding somebody to create or the risk and create this kind of financing go a huge way in helping enterprise actually help solve this challenge. Beth, thanks so much. And I think you hit on two really important points. One is to Usha's earlier remarks around the cycle of water and really understanding what aspects of that are facing some of the most vulnerable communities. And as your technology really looks at using atmospheric water generators to provide clean water in arid and semi-arid regions, but that's really reaching people. And what you're describing there is not financing as usual or not your mother's financing, right? We're talking about the sort of long-term patient capital that needs upfront de-risking as well as that longer institutional investment that will maintain and support that over the long term. So I think, you know, two really important points around getting innovative would not just the technologies, but the financing itself. And maybe we can come back to Gary if he has examples on that. But I did want to come to you, Jim. Of course, PepsiCo has been in the discussions around sustainable water management for many, many years, a champion around the world on these issues. Maybe you can help folks understand why Pepsi cares about water sustainability and what you saw last week as a watershed moment on these issues from the private sector. Yeah, thanks, Tanya. Just a little bit of background to answer your first question. You know, why does PepsiCo care about water? Obviously, we use water in our beverages, but most people don't know that PepsiCo is about 60 percent food. So we have a very significant agricultural footprint, which obviously employs many, many farmers around the world, but also we touch about 7 million acres. We also have hundreds of production facilities. So for us, water is a fundamental part of our business and the people that we touch. You know, we've committed to be net water positive by 2030 globally in our high water risk areas. And we already have plants that are off the water grid, meaning they use no water for the municipal system for hundreds of days. So as you say, water for us is really important. And as I think back on the conference and, you know, was together really with everybody on this call at one point or another, you know, if I were to just try and boil it down to one thing as a takeaway, it's, it's, and I would just echo the comments everybody else has made. It's the increasing importance and the recognition of the sort of water, climate, agriculture, and how those things fit together. And, you know, we often think in our own silos, but fundamentally those things have to be, have to be linked. And so the continuing efforts to understand, to quantify, and to be able to really look at, you know, as, as Usha said, the water system, but I would say it's even broader, the whole ecological system and how it's related. And to be able to quantify some of the benefits and the co-benefits will help unlock some of the financing, I believe that Gary and Beth talked about. So to me the fundamental takeaway was that, and the good news is the increasing realization of how these things are linked. To Hank's point, I also agree, you know, was it a successful conference? We're about to find out. Thanks so much, Jim. And maybe just staying on that really important message at the end there around the realization of this nexus of climate, agri, and water. I think most people don't realize that agri food systems are the largest consumer of water at 70% and greater in a lot of the geographies. And this is consistent across countries. And as we rethink how we produce and consume food and start to value that water in different ways, what are the, what are the messages that we can start to think about around trade-offs? I think people often shy away from looking at those trade-offs. And what you're basically describing is that it's a win-win-win. We don't necessarily have to choose. We can achieve net zero. We can achieve regenerative food systems and reduce our water footprint at the same time. Am I getting that right? We think that that's right, if or and, as people want to say. It's possible if really a couple of things have to happen. And again, there was a lot of good conversation around this at the meetings. But I think if I think about from the private sector, we need to make bolder commitments as the private sector, not just in our own operations, but really thinking about the entire network of our suppliers, our value chain, and also watersheds. This is a team sport. And if we ever forget that, we're not going to be successful. And that's true for everyone. You know, no government, no private company, no NGO can do this by themselves. Because really, this all takes place at a watershed level. Water is a global problem that's intensely local. And so I think we can do it if we don't forget that. As a private company, we need to hold our whole supply chain set of partners, you know, to hold them to the same commitments that we're making. And then I think all together, we need to lean into, and this gets to your point, we need to lean into local advocacy because we need, you know, Hank's been very articulate about this over the years, we need smart governance. And I'll just give you one example. You know, we have places where we wash potatoes, for example, we wash potatoes, we take that water and we treat it back to better than WHO drinking water standards. And then we use it to wash potatoes again. Makes sense. Truly circular water. It's great. And in some parts of the world, we're actually not allowed to do that. So having advocacy that supports all these things we're talking about important. So bolder commitments, making sure that it's a team sport and making sure together we get the right advocacy and govern regulations in place. I think that's exactly what will allow us to do what you said and to really make water circular and to serve all these trade out, address these tradeouts and serve these requirements that we all are talking about. Thanks so much, Jim. And Gary, maybe then just coming back to you around that water is a local issue and how we rethink not just the integration of policy and technologies and partnerships to unlock finance, but what are the ways in which aquapreneurs and the wider ecosystem that's really looking to get in the trenches and solve these problems to reach 100 million people and more? How are they able to unlock finance? What are you seeing that's promising? And how did last week sort of propel that forward? The water puns are just endless, by the way. So we'll have to just continue to work around them. No, I see this vast network around water, everything from what Beth is talking about and the need for capital for the aquapreneurs all the way up to larger infrastructure that needs to happen and be put in place as well. So I think that what I see what we're trying to do because we have heard through the decades that there's just so much need out there and so little capital focusing on it. And after hearing people lament for years that there's no bankable deals, there's really nothing out there that will work. It's financially viable for the capital markets. We suspended disbelief and said, you know, let's figure out if there is a market out there and if we can do that. And that's exactly what we've done with water.org and water equity. Water.org as a philanthropy oriented organization goes out there and corrects the market failures, provides a technical assistance, works with local financial institutions to start lending microloans for water and sanitation. And so that kind of creating the financial plumbing that I call it. So we create that financial plumbing between the global capital markets and women making just a few dollars a day who need access to water and sanitation. And that's resulted in over $4 billion in microloans reaching 52 million people. And that's one way, I think. But when I look at as we look at how do we scale this up looking to the capital markets with water equity which is the world's first asset manager that's dedicated exclusively to water and sanitation in low and middle income countries. And water equity now has pulled together more than $350 million in committed capital from investors that have the opportunity for a financial return to be able to then complete that circle. And what I really see is a lot of our local financial institutions that we work with around the world are not just doing microfinance now. They're also looking to enterprises like Beth is talking about. So we've been helping those types of financial institutions understand the local water and sanitation market and where there is a potential to invest and get financial returns. And so I think that as we look to where the capital is and some of the corporates, part of the Water Resilience Coalition, they see the potential now to come into this, like I said, with their balance sheets and invest in this. I'm very grateful to PepsiCo who for years supported us to reach millions of people, particularly in India but around the world. That funding that they gave us helped us to lay the tracks for this asset manager. So using philanthropy to kind of set things in motion and nudging the markets a little bit so that this can really, again, party in the pun, Tanya, can flood capital into this. And if we can now, if we can connect the dots between the capital markets and people making a few dollars a day and financial returns can be had, then it's on us. We're not talking about scaling up charity to get everybody water. If we can do it with the capital markets, there's no excuse for not making investments in people who need these services. Gary, thank you so much. I think exactly. So we're looking at the cycle of water, but that cycle of finance and how it actually has a role for so many of the stakeholders. I think people are also trying to shift from the what to the how around where the competencies, strengths, and then that complementary role can play that sort of unlocking outcome. I do want to recognize that, Hank, you've been hearing from a number of these experts around the level of ambition, around the good examples that have been out there that need scaling, around the passion of the innovators out there that want to get in the trenches and problem solve. What's encouraging you here and what more should we ask the global community to be paying attention to? Thanks, Tanya. And thanks all for your commitment, not only in these last days here in New York and now again the days after, but in the years leading up to this conference took us 46 years. So for us, we said we better make best use of this moment. And I think we were able to get that. I think over this morning, I checked 709 voluntary commitments. The challenge, of course, with that is that in the context of all these relationships, you can't silo your approaches. Before you know these commitments are like a post-modernistic flower garden. They bloom for a season, then they're gone. So if you don't bring them together, are able to validate and evaluate and follow up, there's no replication, there's no watershed moment, there's no flooding of funding going. It's just fragmentation all over the place. So one and a half years ago, we said we have to bring those commitments together in like a global pact for water.  And before you know it, governments and private sector don't want to be binded to a commitment. So it's now this water action agenda. It has a structure. It has a follow up. But accountability is going to be of greater importance. Not only accountability and effect are we delivering, but I would say accountability and effect are we capitalizing on this. Are these the opportunities that we should invest in? Where is the opportunity for scale and replication? So this can indeed lead to flooding investments and solutions across the world. And I think that's the moment of truth. It's such an agenda in contrast to a negotiation better if we focus on the solutions and the partnerships that are needed. What is then the governance that we need around it, the environment that is safe enough? And I think the conference showed that water provides that more or less secure environment where it's okay from governments and private sector and finance and NGOs and communities to come together and say, hey, these are my needs. These are my interests collectively. If I invest in water, they can be met and dealt with. Now the question is, are these solutions fitting? Are they solving tomorrow's problems? And where are the changes that are needed in society, in the environment, in governance, in financing way, in ways of collaboration to see indeed scaling a replication of those solutions? Because the challenge is massive. And I think to add to that challenge, Anusha is one of our commissioners on the Global Commission on the Economics on Water too. The Global Commission showed us that while water of course is felt, the crisis is felt very local, and we see the problem in our rivers, so in our streams, but also in our groundwater, which is always transboundary. Now water through this atmospheric rivers, water is transported across continents. So that means you will have water deficits on one and a water flow in the other. So all of a sudden, water turns into a very geographically bound way, something that is global, and therefore multilateral. And how are we going to be able to deal with that, knowing that with climate change on top of that, and IPCC came up with a report last week too, this is not going to be less problematic. So we need to look at across those scales to solutions that are about innovation and technology, public and private partnership, that are about governance and finance, and that are also about multilateralism. And there's nothing against, you know, at the moment, I can only call Usha at the UN, and for the rest nobody picks up the phone when it comes to water. So we have to figure out how to do this differently, organize ourselves around it. And I'm not, you know, I'm against more bureaucracy. I want effective coordination and focus on implementation. But nobody, hey, that's not going to work in the context of this crisis. Fantastic. And I mean, I think that if there's a clear message around the resolute that's needed at the global level around the governance that you describe, and yet the agility and the dynamism we're going to need to continue to foster in terms of local water action. And I'm encouraged. Yeah, please, Hank. Hundreds of people were working on a conference. It's scared. I woke up, well, if I had sleep at all last week, I was thinking like, we're only working on a conference. We're not working on water. So the day after, who's actually picking up the phone when we are talking about water? Well, you are, but it's tough. We made a conference successful knowing that everybody came together. And there's more or less an agenda and an agreeable conclusion that, yes, water is cross-cutting. It touches upon everything and everyone everywhere at every point in time. It means that the only way to deal with this is very comprehensive and a very committed way looking at the longer term. But the day after, we still sit in our same systems and our same silos. The solutions by themselves are not enough to address that fragmentation that we have in society. It has to be more. And the question is now beyond the conference because there's no negotiate of process. There's nothing left now. There's no mandate with nobody. The only thing is voluntary commitment. Is that enough to drive this agenda format? And I questioned it. No, I mean, I think you're, yeah, Usha, do you want to come in? Oh, I just wanted to jump in to say like, how are we going to hold our feet to the fire? And I think we should be talking about this, and we will be talking about it and convening some of our partners during the United Nations General Assembly in September and Climate Week. So I think that's a good first step, I think, to see how much is actually getting done. Whatever those commitments has actually started making progress. And that's the only way. If we call people on the carpet and come back and say, where are you with your commitment? That is going to be really important. Usha, I can come to you next. Thank you, Tanya. And thank you, Hank. I feel a very strong need to defend the bureaucratic world in which I live. So the advantage of the conference, and I completely agree with what you said, Hank, but the advantage and the strongest point of the conference was that it occurred. It brought global attention to a topic that is being considered in a very fragmented fashion, right? What the conference did was brought a focus to the subject at the highest level, which is the politicians, the member states, who said, oh my God, this is it. So I think there is advantage to that. However, from what you were saying, we can't, therefore, rest on our laurels and say, what a brilliant conference. And yes, it's a conference. We all talk to each other. We have to create this water action decade amongst ourselves. It's not that the UN can do it, or that Pepsi can do it, or Gary or Beth can do it. All of us have to come together to create action on the ground. What does that mean? So Jim, you were talking about how water is connected to food and climate. Absolutely correct. From where I sit at the UNDP, the water is the one connecting issue that connects all 17 SDGs. That's how we're looking at it. Name anyone. There's not even one that does not have water as a significant part of it. And Tanya started with this. Today, water has become a point of insecurity on the planet. Six out of seven people feel insecure in the world today. And a large part of that is water and climate security. This is a huge development from where we were, let's say, a decade or two decades ago. And the final point, Tanya, just to echo in on what I guess Hank was saying, and even Jim, yes, like climate, water is now being considered at the level of some sort of global architecture. But it is a very local issue. But I think that global architecture is absolutely necessary to focus attention, to focus solutions and then bring it down to the country level. So I'm thinking, for example, Jim, of the climate architecture we have globally compared to the MDCs at the country level. And the net zero and whatnot, which is inevitably at the country and company level. And I was on a panel with the CEO of Violia, I guess, last week, and she was talking about why can't we do the same water, including some sort of water net zero. So what I'm trying to say is water needs a global focus and architecture that it has not unfortunately had. I believe looking at it as a cycle and everything else that Hank was saying will hopefully move towards creating that architecture. But we have to come back down to the country level and Gary and Beth and yourself and all of you have to operate at that level. Back to you, Tanya. Thank you. Thanks, Usha. And maybe in the spirit of Hank's challenge to ourselves, but also to the global community on how we ensure that fragmentation doesn't continue, maybe I can come to each of you for, you know, it's Tuesday after the conference. What is the one thing amongst many I imagine, but what is the one thing that you are really inspired to do and take forward through your institution, your sector.  I'd love to start with Beth. Over to you. You heard a number of ways in which we can support our aquapreneurs and this wider ecosystem, but what's inspiring you on action? Sorry for that. So for me, I think the UN Water Conference was a way for me, I felt she energized because, you know, I have worked in water. I have faced water insecurities myself.  So I have lived through that process. So for me, when I attended the UN Water Conference, it gave me reassurance that government and bigger institutions are actually willing to do action and, you know, action for water is a collective action. And everybody fits into this puzzle. So I have a role to play, big corporates, like, Tenskiko has a role to play. Everyone at their local level has a role to play. And for me, it was just a way to be energized and, you know, to feel that actually I can work with like the government of Kenya. Previously I would never go anywhere near the government because of the obvious reasons.  So for a startup, that is not ideal. But now I realize that for me to succeed in what I'm doing, I have to be very inclusive, even the government to talk to them to understand, you know, how we can work together. But at the same time, water issues also, the way you work, you must be very inclusive because water issues affect each gender differently. It affects each age group differently.  Children have their own water story. You know, everybody is affected by water differences. So also understanding these complexities of water, we go a long way and we, you know, help in understanding what are the solutions around them. Beth, thanks so much. And thanks for everything you're doing every day to impact the lives of people, but also the paving of the way for more entrepreneurs to learn from this and support this type of scale up. Jim, let me come to you next. You've talked about water being a team sport and I'm wondering where your energy is for the next phase of water action. Thanks, Tanya. You can ask my team and they'll tell you I'm already acting on it. It's really accelerate. How do we use, you know, as a corporation, as PepsiCo, how do we use our size and our scale to accelerate all the kinds of things we've been talking about? And, you know, I always say it's three things. It's act, act, act. The first is act broadly. It's a big problem. It's a global problem. And we have to be acting at least at the watershed level. And I think, you know, to Hank's point, there's atmospheric rivers to Usha's point. But we have to act. We have to act broadly at the same time, acting locally. The second is we have to act together. You know, I told the group last week, no matter how good the work is that we're doing, if we're doing it by ourself, we're doing it wrong. Because these things require collective action and collaboration. And that's hard for a lot of companies, for a lot of countries, for a lot of NGOs. But we have to act together. And then the third is we have to act now, right? We have to accelerate and move faster. And so that's really where my action is, is, you know, act broadly, act together, and act now. Thanks, Jim. Gary, over to you. To you, Ann, if you would like on behalf of UNMAT. Sure. To me, you know, I'm not saying anything new here, because everybody's talking about it, it's collaboration and connection.  Connection is something very specific. And I think that what we want to do is to be able to connect, you know, those sources of philanthropic and investment capital with people making a few dollars a day. And we have to go about that in very concrete ways. And I think that's, that's what we were doing, you know, a few years ago, once we struck upon this concept that women living in poverty were willing and able to pay for finances through, for water services, if they had access to affordable finance, that was a breakthrough for us in terms of creating those connections. And so I recast us, you know, water.org is as much a finance institution now as it is a water NGO. I mean, what NGO has ever gone out and created an asset manager out of thin air, you know, and now is on its way to a billion dollars of committed capital, hopefully by the end of this year. And so we're trying to connect in very concrete ways so that people can see water and sanitation, not just as a problem to be solved, but as a market to be served. And I think that is what we see in these connections and these collaborations with, you know, over 150 financial institutions around the world who are doing this on the ground in these countries, and all of the investors that we have now on the other end of that financial plumbing. And that's for me, as somebody that's been in the sector for so long and has been to so many conferences and heard a lot of ideas about how this organization should do this and that one should do that. It's like we wanted to kind of come in and do it and then branch out and serve as an example to lots of capital sources that could now see that it is viable to invest in poor women who need water and sanitation and then greatly scale up the capital by kind of shining a light on this path. Fantastic. Thanks, Gary. And thanks for continuing to reinforce the finance cycle across the water cycle. And we'll hold you to the climate week and looking forward to seeing water.org's leading by doing example there. And Usha, over to you. I think other than asking your colleagues at the UN to answer the phone when Hank calls, what can we count on for what happens next? Well, I've now instructed everyone at the UN to pick up as long as they see Hank's phone number on the dial there. Look, as a bureaucrat, I hate these, what is the one takeaway, one sort of question. But let me try to answer that. So I think one takeaway is exactly what everybody's saying. We have to come together more. But words like collaboration, cooperation, these are easy words, right? I remember, Tanya, when I founded the 2030 Border Resources Group, there was one request I made for all the CEOs who were around the table with me that intimidated me to death. So there was the Pepsi CEO, Jim, there was the Coca-Cola one, there was Peter Brabeck, et cetera. And I said, I have one request to you all. Please, when you come into the conference room, please leave your flags at the door. We all have flags. We all have flags and we'd love to bring them in and wave them vigorously. But in order to create solutions around, in a collective way, around these incredibly important issues like water, we have to leave the flags at the door and come in to solve an issue or to find a solution. Thank you. Back to you, Tanya. Thanks so much, Usha. And I think the Water Resources Group, in your example, you know, been active since 12, 13 years now and now in 14 countries. So I think that advice and that request has definitely generated a step change in how these partnerships are starting to form at the country level with much more to achieve in these coming years. So Hank, over to you for the final word. What is giving you hope and promise and what are you doing next? I think I more or less was born hopeful. So activist, mother and engineer father. So there's no way to do this differently. But also this conversation again and the commitment that's shown by Gary, Jim, Beth, and Usha and yourself here at the forum really shows the optimism that's behind it. I also think that that was also coming from the last three days and the whole week here in New York. There is in the context of this massive crisis that is only, you know, you can talk about it as only becoming bigger and bigger. There's a huge opportunity when it comes to water and that is what I've always liked in the water space. The moment you have a conversation water, you bring everybody together and it is always about solutions. There's always an opportunity. A dollar invested in water always trickles down somewhere in your, either in your own supply chain or in your watershed in your communities and you know, you find it somewhere with better health, a better environment. Opportunities to again invest and reinvents and scale and replicate. So I think that's the hope. The challenge of course is that after all these years I want to, I'm always a little bit impatient. I really want to see that action, that governance in place and to be able to ensure that there is that follow up. But Gary, you're right. We concluded also Friday that not only in September we will see each other on water in the SDG Summit and High Level Week, the year after with the Summit of the Future. Again, the UN will agree that water will take a critical role as well as in the World Social Forum which will be a year after. So three years in a row at least we will see water as a cross-cutting issue in the UN agenda as well as that I'm pretty sure with your leadership, your collective leadership, we will see it happening on the ground and I look forward in my next capacity not as an envoy but something else to help and seek the opportunity to move that ahead as well. So thanks Tanya here at the forum and thank you all for joining and your actions. Thanks so much Hank and a special thanks on behalf of the world if I made to the remarkable inspiration and individual leadership that you have shown to this agenda. I want to thank our panelists for your leadership and inspiration and we're looking forward to getting quite serious on this. There's no green without blue. Water is a team sport and I think the puns will carry us through the tough times so let's do that together. The World Economic Forum is very committed to this agenda and bringing that fragmentation into a much more connected and coordinated way forward. Thank you everyone. Thanks Tanya. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Bye. Thanks everyone.


I see all the breakfasts and plus TV, you just take a look at, you know, the security concerns and all that's been happening shortly after the elections, the fact that it's been renewed attack in some parts of the country. Now, gunmen suspected to be Boko Haram terrorists attacked the Dhuban community in Hongo, local government area of Adama, were state-killing three unsettling the blaze houses and shops cutting away food items as well. Just yesterday, also, no fewer than 10 persons were murdered in Kiwasi village in Usar, council of Tarabah state, where suspected headsmen were responsible for that attack. Now confirming the development of council, Ketika community chairman, Moussa said the attackers invaded the community in the early hours of yesterday. The onslaught came barely two days after scores were slaughtered in Garni back village in Kolo, council by unknown gunmen. This has been shocked that has been expressed.  Governors or the president would be very shocked by, you know, the renewed attack. Governor Darius Ishiaku has expressed his shock as well. According to the chairman, his directed security apparatus to go after, you know, the killers. Now for the want of time, so it's important to note that apart from Tarabah state, Adama, Kogi is also another hotspot amongst others that we can mention. But this morning, we have our guests this morning, Edgar joining us to make sense of all of this Augustin Edgar, who is a security expert. Augustin, thank you so much for being part of the show. Good morning, it's my pleasure. Yes, I'd like to ask you, what are your thoughts on the recently renewed attacks? Now, prior to the election, we had also noticed that there seem to have been a break, you know, from all of the attacks from Bandit, Hetzman, Boko Haram, whatever attacks that you have for them, it totally, you know, went down. And some people had alluded that it probably would have been, you know, the issue of the redesigned and the cash cashless policy, the narrow note and what have you could have been responsible for the fact that we didn't have these attacks. Now, shortly after the election, we seem to be having these attacks. And a lot of Nigerians have lost their lives in the course of this. So I ask you again, what do you make of this renewed attacks in our polity? All right, I think they don't want to be feel, they don't want to feel defeated because from the global... Well, we seem to have a disconnect. Probably like to show your thoughts about the, you know, the attacks that have actually emerged, you know, shortly after the elections in different parts of the country. And, you know, also looking at the fact that there's a cofew that's also being imposed, however, you know, in some local government over the recent killings that we're having in Nigeria, not necessarily the entire country, but in some parts. But you can also take out the fact that crime and criminality is also on the high. And not to say that we want to wake up to a country where, of course, that would be the wish of everyone where crime and criminality does not exist. But then we don't, I mean, perfection is an illusion. But then again, we're asking what could have been responsible for the period of quiet and calm that we had experienced prior to the elections? Edgar, can you hear me? I think there are two things that were responsible for for the inactivity of those groups. First, before the elections, there were a lot of redeployment of security forces in all areas, in all the communities, on our streets, they were there. There was an increased surveillance on their own parts that they couldn't. Also, there was this cash crunch during that period. People didn't have enough cash to move around. And also there was this tough and surge going on. And so at that time, I think they were very low key. But after the elections, we see that some of those things have been lifted off. The police have returned to their various duty posts and duty stations. We still have a few inflow of cash in the system so they can, they have money to really go around. Totally. In the global index of most terrorized nations, we saw that Nigeria has moved from the fourth position to the eighth position or six to eight from the analysis that we got globally. And they don't want to feel defeated, as much as we also know that some of their hierarchy have been dismantled to some extent. Now they are preaching in some sudden factions, little factions that have been broken or spread across throughout the region, as you can see. They don't have a centralized formation like before. And some of them, of course, they know that they need funding to carry out their operations and even to survive. And we see that funding too have been made difficult by the government. So like I said in the last program, they go through, they try to make their own funding by inflicting some of these violence in the community, creating fear and what they can take. First, for their own survival, they were just after in one of the houses, they broke in the two-foot. You can see that it is a matter of survival now. They are there to survive mostly before they can have a fit, even though that is a situation of survival on their factions. And so they are preaching indiscriminately. That is responsible. That doesn't mean that the Nigerian military force is not making progress. They have made frantic efforts. They have made a very good progress so far. And we think that within those regions, where they have these violence like every state government should reinforce their security and to protect lives and property. Well, so would you agree with the redesign, I mean the policy of the central bank of Nigeria where you have the narrow redesign and the fact that some of the reasons for this policy had been believed. For instance, one of the reasons for that policy is to reduce the unbanked population. I can't categorically say that the unbanked population has reduced or you already have a lot of people who are going to be unbanked following the aftermath of that particular policy. But then again, tackling security was one of it. So do you think that that particular policy has had a serious effect on the attacks of this criminal element? And then maybe what we're seeing now is more like the aftermath of it? Yes, of course. In a way to tackle insecurity is a 360-degree approach. And of course, we know that funding plays a very key role in funding all these terror attacks. And of course, in most terror attacks on most criminal war, the banks play a lot of role to enable their operations. And so it was a very, very wonderful one from the government initiating some of this cashless policy from the central bank to try to make things a little bit difficult for the society. And of course, for those who depend on some of these infrastructures to commit crime, I would not say that it has helped to some extent. But then the central bank have to find a way that criminal elements will not stop. There's no way criminality can be stopped. We can only be reduced. So us returning back, the nation returning back to the normal operations, like having the cash flow, is definitely not going to increase insecurity. But as they have their policies well instituted, like the minimum balance, the minimum withdrawal per day, of course those checks really help us to keep in check of insecurity in our nation. But I'd like to ask you then, what then is responsible for these renewed attacks? I mean, it wasn't what we saw shortly after that policy was introduced. And if you have alluded to the fact that, you know, the economy was crippled, then exactly what is responsible for these renewed attacks? Well, I was hoping that Edgar would actually respond to, you know, what are the consents? I mean, what could be responsible for the renewed attack? I mean, prior to the reintroduction of the CBN policy where Nigerians or Nigeria's economy was suspected to go cashless. Edgar, if you can hear me now, my question to you is, what then is responsible for the renewed attacks by these bandits?  So exactly what then is responsible for the renewed attacks when we look at months back, this was not the case. First of all is a survivor. These groups want to survive. That is first thing, survivor. Secondly, they are trying to get funding for their operations. And so, Edgar, hear me? Well, so maybe we'll probably have to have this conversation tomorrow. Okay. We need to hear your thoughts and we'll probably just have orders on board. We would have to move this conversation to tomorrow. It's unfortunate that the network has been very unfriendly with us this morning on the show. We apologize sincerely on behalf of the service providers and what have you. And we hope that we have this conversation tomorrow. Edgar, thank you so much for being part of the show this morning. He's a security expert and analyst who joined us this morning from Ibado. We take a break when we return. We'll be looking at another conversation. Hopefully the network is favorable, cash withdrawal, limit, especially the fact that governors have been urged to embrace digital transfers. What exactly could be the problem with that? Stay with us.


Good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to our community chat for Thursday, June 4th. I want to welcome Angela Mills and Jennifer Moyestan to the conversation today. Two of our community participation officers as well as many other roles that they fulfill. And Town Manager Paul Balkam, it is also joining us. My name is Brianna. To ask questions during this live Q&A, please use the Q&A function within Zoom or raise your hand in Zoom. If you're joining us from a telephone, I see some people in the room from a telephone, please press star nine to raise your hand and we will welcome you into the room to ask your question. This webinar is being recorded so please refrain from asking any personally identifying health questions or anything like that. Again, for the people who just joined us, we have our community participation officers for Amherst, Jennifer Moyestan and Angela Mills joining Paul Balkam and I. So before we get to Q&A, Paul, do you have any general updates for our viewers? So two things. One is I want to identify the, recognize the statement and the council resolution that the council issued on Monday and the, to recognize the death of Mr. Floyd and to just identify that this to me seems like a real change moment for a lot of people. And I think that it's people being in the streets and everything that has created a new reflection on how we do our business and how we conduct our lives and how we interact with people. So that's been really sort of dominating everything in my mind in my family's life. In fact, in the town and the business of the town, you know, we are moving into budget season Monday will have their first public hearings for the one month budget which will take us through July and for the regional district budget, which, which will for the full fiscal year. So those will be two public hearings on Monday and then we will continue to progress through presenting a capital improvement program for FY 21. And then the entire FY 21 count budget, and that gets presented to the council on June 29. So there's a lot of upcoming things happening in the budget world. We'll talk about other things as we move forward. And for those interested in following along with budget. We've been active actively updating that page on our website, and our new finance director has been keeping that information up to date and that's amherstandmay.gov slash budget. So, Jen and Angela anything you want to say before we launch into questions. No. Well, I'd like to just invite everyone will be having a virtual Juneteenth. And so it will be being aired on a CT or Amherst media. So we welcome everyone for the upcoming times and on our socials as well as we'll do a reading of the speed from Frederick Douglass on July 4, July 5 for what is the fourth of July to sleep. Thank you. And when we slave is the fourth of July. And we'll have all that information and links and how to join up on our community calendar. Is that right, Jen? Yes, absolutely. Great. When is the Juneteenth event. June 19th at it'll, we'll have a bell ringing ceremony to kick it off so that we'll start here at town hall at four o'clock. Great. Thank you for sharing that. I think one of the one of the things that we keep advertising to folks and we're having these meetings is that Jen and Angela are always one of them is always staffing the town manager's office to take your calls to answer your emails and what kind of what kind of calls have you guys been getting lately like what kind of concerns are people expressing over the last couple of weeks. So people definitely want to be outdoors. And several calls about whether they can pop into Puffers pond to swim. We've had lots of questions about when playgrounds are going to open up. And obviously people would like to use the community pools. So this have been some of the most frequent phone calls. And do we have any updates on, on, on those. The openings of any of those things, Paul, as far as you know, Puffers pond, for example, I think I must have gotten at least 12 emails in the last 24 hours about being able to use it for swimming. So Puffers pond is we're working on staffing Puffers pond, we will be implementing social distancing requirements at Puffers pond. And that requires us to have staffing. And we think that we will have the staffing in place probably by June 15. And that's our mission at least to try to get the proper staffing in place by then. In the meantime, we will continue to have police patrols there on a regular basis. If the weather is really good just to help encourage people to observe social distancing. The pond is available for fishing for walking around. People sometimes will go there for exercise, you know, in the, in the water, those are all things that people do. It's really the sort of congregating on the beach that we're trying to manage through. And we know the weather's getting warm, it's going to, it's warm today or be warm in the future. So we know that it's a, it's an attractive feature and we want to maintain it of making sure it's available to residents and a lot of non residents use it as well. So, but we are going to have to dedicate some actual staff there to help make sure people understand what the rules are when they go, when they go in. So, so for the other things, swimming pools, we're shooting to have those open as well. We're, you know, the DPW is doing the work that needs to go into preparing the pools every year in terms of painting and cleaning and the amount and things like that. LSSE is moving forward with securing lifeguards. Swimming pools will be on a modified basis. We still will always observe the guidance provided by the governor's office. And so at this point, we're really not clear on what that is, but all indications are that we will have our swimming pools, at least one swimming pool open on a modified schedule for the summer. You know, the other things we're working on sort of putting a comprehensive list together for all of our summer activities for people that we will release probably Monday. And that will provide additional guidance for folks. So Sarah wants to know if staffing at Puffer's Ponds includes lifeguards. No, that's a really good question. No, it does not include lifeguards. It's just about admission to the beach and managing behavior on the beach. We really, I mean, I love Puffer's the way it is honestly, and I love that it's sort of rural and sort of free to people. And if we were to implement lifeguards and we probably have to implement ropes and have all kinds of rules and I don't think that's really where the town is. And we have two other facilities that provide that in the two swimming pools. So we're just talking about managing the beach space, not about regulating the swimming areas. And I imagine the release we put out on Monday will include this, but there have been a lot of questions about fireworks and any kind of Independence Day celebration and if everything is off for that. Yes, that's independent fireworks. The LSSC sponsored fireworks and Independence Day events are going to be canceled for a number of reasons. One is it's about having large groups get together. But also a lot of those work, all that work depends on significant fundraising that LSSC does every year. And businesses aren't in a position to be donating money to fireworks. It's something we'd love to be able to do, but it's wholly inappropriate. LSSC almost every other community canceling their fireworks as well. So I wondered if Jen could tell us a little bit about how the community mask initiative came together because that was something that you kind of spearheaded initially and could you tell everybody about how that came together. Sure. I just, I had a friend in Ecolopes who was making masks for the senior center and we were just talking one day and decided that this would be a great initiative to try and ensure that all residents of Amherst have access to two masks. It was just as simple as that. And how's it going? It's been really successful so far. So if you know folks who need a mask, please give us a call or go to our website and sign up. What's the demand like now? Are we, do we have a good supply or are we still in need of donations and sewers? Where are we at right now? So we, it started off a little bit slow and then it peaked really high and now we're starting to come down a little bit. So now we're trying to get enough children's masks to help support the children who get masks of the school lunch program, lunch through the school lunch program. I think that's important because I know a lot of people have been making masks but they are not really one size fits all for children who are smaller. So it's a good point. Another big event that happened recently and I think, Angela, is it tomorrow graduation? Was the official graduation day? Tomorrow was the official graduation day. We had a great diploma ceremony last week. Last Wednesday, the kids were socially distanced and the professional photographer did a fabulous job and we had terrific weather. So my kids have their diplomas and tomorrow is the car parade. Everyone's starting at their elementary school and then driving towards the high school for the graduation car parade and the video of graduation will be shown on Amherst media tomorrow at 6pm. So this includes, I'm sorry, this includes towns of the outlying towns because it's a regional school. So Leverett and Pellum and Shoesbury kids will be coming from there. Oh, that's really cool. Correct. Are people encouraged to cheer them on along the way or is it more about the caravan? Cars will be decorated, balloons will be out. That's awesome. All right. We just got another question that came in through the Q&A in the room and it was stated at a previous chat that the senior center is closed for the rest of the year. Could the space be made available to the school system? They need to spread out. Obviously the school superintendent and his team have looked at every available option available to them and we've offered up whatever we need. The challenge for them is that when they expand their footprint to different locations, there's an incredible amount of costs that goes with it. For instance, every location needs to have a registered nurse at the location and every location needs to have some kind of building supervisor. So when they started looking at having these smaller buildings and we looked at a number of them that the town owned, the actual costs became pretty substantial for them. And whether the actual educational value was there was another question. And then there was also the meals piece of it that came with it. So the existing buildings that we have have everything there and the proper restrooms and the right sized restrooms and things like that. So while that space seems logical and we all thought about the same thing everybody thinks the same way I think. But when you look into it you say that really wouldn't help that many kids to make it worth the kind of investment that would be needed. Great, thank you. There's been a lot of talk lately and we've put out some information this week about offering up outdoor dining as an option for some of our restaurants. So could you talk a little bit about what that's going to look like and what that means. Sure, so so two things on that one is that the town was ahead of the curve and we were developing our we had developed our own zoning bylaw the council was really in favor of it. It had gone through the council was going through the public hearing process that's required for a zoning change, which was still move forward. It's the public hearing is June 10. It will then get referred to the council who is likely to pass it on June 15 and that encompasses a pretty broad range of retail activities, not just restaurants. Monday the governor issued some guidelines for just restaurants and how they could expand in an override local zoning. And so we were out since we were so far ahead of the game on this other thing we were out of the box the next morning. The next day with welcoming applications from our establishments who are interested in this. On top of that, we're looking at specific areas in downtown that we might want to proactively designate as dining areas and have the town invest in creating a wider sidewalks by taking over parts of the street and things like that. So there's a lot of work through the inspection services department and through our DPW and working with the bid in the chamber and seeing how this this can work. And I think there's some interest. I don't know, five to 10 restaurants have already expressed an interest in this so I think you'll see some of that downtown. It's kind of a time limited period so that's why we have to act really fast on it. Because it's really just for the warmer wet is warmer weather. The other thing that happened is that the town council dedicated has adjusted their policy to designate the town manager to be able to utilize public ways, which is what that's what a public sidewalk is or a street to accommodate this kind of activity. So that means everything will get done in a matter of days as opposed to going through a meeting process with multiple boards. So it's kind of exciting. You know, I think, you know, it's a business decision for the restaurants because they will have to invest and decide if they can make their operations run with the reduced seating. It's a, I think it's a pretty big challenge, but we have some very entrepreneurial restaurants who are ready to jump on it. So we're going to move as fast as we can. In reopening downtown people right now know that parking fees aren't being enforced. So what would that look like going forward or people as restaurants reopen and businesses reopen and more people are in downtown. How long will that continue. So right now we, we are not. We're, we didn't say you don't have to pay to park, but we're not enforcing that. So there's, there's a natural conclusion and we're not our parking enforcement officers are not writing tickets other than for a few parking a handicap. Parking place or is loading zone someplace you're not supposed to park. Instead, they have been working with the senior center to help deliver meals and do other activities for the town. So. And we will maintain that posture. We will review it. Around the 4th of July and then we haven't gone decided anything about parking downtown. So just. It's a significant impact on the town. So far this fiscal year we've lost well over $300,000 from lack of revenue from our transportation fund. And so all the parking revenue, the tickets and the fees that people pay go into a separate account called the transportation fund and it can only be spent on the activities related to it. And so the things that we pay out of it is we pay our PVTA assessment because we feel like it makes sense for parking fees to support public transportation. We pay our fees for our shared electric bike system because we think that's a transportation thing that comes out of it. And so there are a number of things that that that come out of that that fund, in addition to the people who support the parking lots and the parking kiosks and all the physical along with it. So having that fund down significantly is a real major challenge for the town for next fiscal year actually. Yeah, it's important to note that. Yeah. So I just want to do a quick reminder to our attendees, if you're on the phone with us press star nine to raise your hand and ask your question, raise your hand in the zoom app or type your question in the Q&A. So a question for Jen and Angela here. As a community participation officer team, what have been some of the challenges connecting with people in our community during this, this pandemic. So for a while, many of our boards and committees were unable to meet only decision making boards and committees were meeting like planning board and ZBA. And we missed kind of seeing people coming out of the building because town hall is still close to the public. So those connections, and then also helping people connect to all of that is available in the community. I'm really impressed with all of our volunteers who have been, you know, sewing those masks for us, it is a labor of love, I had no idea how long it took to make a mask until I watched one of my son's friends make one via FaceTime and it is really a long process, even for talented seamstresses. So, I'm impressed with the volunteers who have helped with food initiatives and all of our volunteers who help with the senior center. And it's nice to see people out doing things like that. It's just keep calling us I mean we're here to try and connect you to what the community has available and we thank you all so much for all of your tireless efforts it's been great to see the community pull together in a very kind of organic way. Can you have anything to add I know you and your family do a lot of work with the Survival Center and you've been there throughout all this lending extra hands you want to talk a little bit about what that experience has been like for you. So volunteering at the Amherst Survival Center is always heartwarming, but it is even more now there's a lot of volunteers and they're just expanding to outreach more and more because what we are seeing is that each day there's more and more need. So, security becomes more of an issue to folks so they will now be having a mobile food pantry delivery at the boulders, and they're going out to other, they're able to reach out to other communities in the Hampshire County as well which is fantastic. I suggest everybody whether it's during this pandemic or not take a couple of hours to go and volunteer and have lunch they serve an excellent lunch as well. So taking all the right precautions to be to social distance, which is really great. A lot of folks again have been donating masks to the Survival Center so that the staff and the volunteers have them and then the shoppers have them as well. I want to say, you know, just about Angela mentioned with the boards and committees not being. Not all of them meeting initially and some of those coming back online now but the town manager also recently put a call out for volunteers to fill seats on multiple boards and committees. Could you tell people could either of you tell people how folks can express their interest in joining one of those boards or committees. What the process is like. Paul, do you want to take this one or should I know you should one of you guys should. We encourage you to visit the website Amherst MA gov and head to the boards and committees page and at the very top, you can fill out a community activity form which we refer to here in town hall as a CAF. And on that form, you can pick the things that interest you. There's also at the very top of the page a list of current vacancies, which has been recently updated. It is a great way to build this community that you live in, and we can't do the work without you. And so I encourage you to kind of see what's available and give me a call or give us a call. We can all answer your questions about the time commitment and how often boards and committees meet. And the wonderful thing right now is that a lot of these meetings are recorded and then put up on the website so you can get a sense for the level of engagement and the topics that are covered just by watching one of one of the old I think that's a really important point because sometimes people say I want to give time, but I don't know what where you need me and how can I best give you my time. So I think if you call the manager's office, you know, you'll always get Jennifer and Angela and talk through about what your time availability is what your interests are. I think you go through what the options are and sometimes it's a board and committee sometimes it's something else. It, you know, beyond, you know, providing masks for people which is incredible initiative, which I want to come back to in a second but there's also other ways that you can help with, you know, delivering meals for the senior center and so a lot of that stuff, you know, it sort of flows through the town manager's office and so people in the manager's office if you have a minute to say I do have time I don't know what I can offer. This is a good way to do it. On the mass thing I want to ask Jennifer about like you've, we talked about getting them made how are you doing with distribution and how what's a bit what's the response been when people with the distribution network network you've used. So the distribution has been contactless so we have a table out back behind town hall, where we've been putting the masks with washing instructions and a Ziploc bag and taping that to the inside of the bin. So we haven't really had any problems there everybody's gotten their masks and get a lot of positive feedback from the sewers, you know, some of the sewers kind of feel like they didn't know where to donate the masks to so it's kind of nice because this way they can donate to us and you're getting them out to everyone like to say that you know another goal is to have them in all of town hall or town buildings. Once the buildings open back up so that if you're at the Jones library and you need a mask you can get one there or at the police station this bank center wherever it may be. So did you get those washing instructions from Angela I saw the first batch of masks that she washed and put through the dryer. We need to put a photo of that. So we use the CDC guidelines on their washing instructions and that's what we based our the masks on the Washington. Yeah, gorgeous masks. Elastic or fun to wash but if you have one that has bias tape ties or old t shirt ties. It's great to kind of pull them together and not them before you put them in the washer otherwise. Just think 25 pairs of headphones all wrap together. So I just wanted to say something back to the boards and committees so if you're looking at the boards and committees and don't have a clear idea of what that border committee is, there are mission statements under each board and committee so if you went to the commission the mission statement is listed there on what it is that they actually do or what they're what the mission of the board is so that's pretty good to know too. And just quickly the ones that were specifically seeking right now agricultural Commission affordable housing CDBG Council on aging disability access, the new elementary school building committee. LSE Commission public art public shade tree, but you don't have to wait for a specific vacancy you can express interest at any time and Jennifer and Angela maintain a system to kind of get in touch with folks as vacancies become available to so they do a lot of a lot of work managing that. All right, wow it's already we're already coming up to our, almost our 1230 mark I just want to give out one last call to the attendees in the room if you want to pop a question into the q amp a via zoom please do so now or raise your hand star nine from the phone we'd love to hear from one of you live if you'd like. Let's see. I think. I think we kind of hit a lot of the questions that have been coming in the last few days. So while we give a chance for another question are there any things that you guys want to share that you didn't get asked today or that you want the community to be aware of. Now I just want to say thanks again to everyone who's really stepped up and volunteered around town. It's great to see people out. Doing wonderful things for their neighbors. The mask initiative is really warm my heart it's, it's so nice to see people go out of their way for others. It's, it's a great place to live and I'm really thankful so thank you all. Thanks and Jennifer. So I agree with Angela, of course, and I would like to also as well give my appreciation to all of those who have volunteered in the many different ways to volunteer throughout the town. It's much appreciated and that is again yes the basis of community and we will Angela Brie and I will be back out. You know, trying to connect with you guys all as soon as possible. Thank you and I reiterate both of what you guys just said and I think everyone of us on this call are lucky because we live and work in this community so I think we're seeing both sides of, of, you know what's happening in the town and what's happening in the community. So we're going to be looking for new ways to interact with folks as we move forward so we are always welcome to ideas on our web page Amherst MA dot gov slash get involved is all of our information there's a feedback button you can send us a quick note or an email or a call whichever way you feel comfortable. If you have ideas about how we can meet you where you're at and help you be better connected with us. It's nice to be invited. So just my last thing is what a great team. I mean it's obvious to everybody but this is a tremendous team and they work so well together and they're so community oriented just thank you go all three of you for everything that you do. Thank you. That's a pleasure to be a part of this team. The last thing I'll say is for anybody who's following along with budget or is interested in general for finance we have a couple virtual cup of Joe tomorrow morning at 8am. All of the information is on our homepage as well as our Facebook and Twitter. We'll be having the new finance director Sean Mangano join us as well as our comptroller and previous finance interim finance director Sonia Aldrich. So we'd love to invite you all to come in ask your questions about budget or otherwise. And we will be back with another community chat next Thursday at noon same same link same phone number. Great. Thank you all. All right. Thank you so much. Have a nice day.