Experts discuss interconnectedness of gender issues, family planning, access to safe water

"In the last of its series called '7 Billion: Conversations That Matter,' Aspen Institute's Global Health and Development [on Wednesday] hosted a panel of experts based in Africa and the United States on the interconnectedness of gender issues, family planning, population, and access to safe water," GlobalPost's "Global Pulse" blog reports. According to the blog, "The point of the series was to ask questions about why it mattered that the world was passing the seven billion mark, and the questions [addressed] in Washington were appropriately big: Will water wars replace oil wars? What are the solutions to expand water and sanitation to the 2.5 billion people who don't have it? And just how many people can the world support in an equitable fashion?" The blog recaps the discussion, providing quotes from several of the panelists, and writes, "The panelists kept coming back to the connections among access to water, family planning, and finding ways to use resources more efficiently" (Donnelly, 4/18).