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Graduate Studies

Water Without Borders (WWB)

A collaborative graduate program in Water, Environment and Health.

The Water Without Borders program is a partnership between McMaster University and the United Nations University – International Network on Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH).

About the program

McMaster University has a long and honoured commitment to issues of environment more generally, and more recently water in particular. There is a tremendous recognition of the need to grow this area of research and teaching, and a strong commitment to this initiative from senior administration.

Linked with the opportunities, activities and networks of UNU-INWEH, we are poised to create this innovative program, much in demand from some of our best graduate students, to address issues of international importance related to water, environment and health.

These could include, but are not limited to:

  • Why do 1 billion individuals in the world continue to go without access to safe water, on a daily basis?
  • Why does almost half the world’s population lack access to adequate sanitation?
  • What are the international governance structures that would allow us to safely steward this valuable resource?
  • What impacts will climate change have on the distribution and diffusion of waterborne illness, such as cholera?

The primary goal of WWB is to introduce graduate students to the advanced training and research needed by professionals in the field of water-health, broadly defined, to fill a growing global societal need for science, service, policy, and practice, around the fundamental human issue of maintaining water security and water resources now and in the future.

Issues of provision, access, quality, equity, conflict, distribution, change, governance, and environmental integrity – are all paramount importance to studying and responding to the water problematique. This means that highly qualified personnel, from a range of disciplines (including those belonging to natural sciences, humanities, business, social sciences, and health), are required to work together in understanding and addressing the emerging global water crisis. Water issues at all scales are transdisciplinary and WWB offers a distinctive program opportunity to develop transdisciplinary skills, featuring international experience, and engagement with water professionals, at the interface of water policy and research.