Tampa, FL (Oc.t 28, 2009) — You don’t have to look any further than backyard to see that there’s a regional water crisis. A three-year drought has dried up rivers and other water sources, pumping threatens wells and wetlands, and officials have imposed the toughest watering restrictions in the Tampa Bay area’s history.

A special forum at USF on Wednesday, Nov. 4, will focus on how water usage and responses to shortages here in Tampa Bay can have global environmental and health implications. The Tampa Bay chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility and the USF College of Public Health are sponsoring “The Global Water Crisis: Solutions from Tampa Bay,” at the USF College of Public Health auditorium, 13201 Bruce B. Downs Blvd, in Tampa. Refreshments will be served at 6:30 p.m. and the event starts at 7 p.m.

The keynote speaker, Dr. Noel J. Brown, president and CEO of Friends of the United Nations, is an internationally recognized expert on global water issues and champion of environmental sustainability. Dr. Brown and others have noted the unprecedented demand on water resources can have profound implications for the world’s water supply, protection of human health and the viability of aquatic ecosystems.

A panel discuss will feature Mary Mulhern of the Tampa City Council and Karl Nurse of St. Petersburg City Council, as well as Frank Mueller-Karger, PhD, of the USF College of Marine Science, Dr. David Randle, managing director of Waves of Change, and Phil Compton, regional representative of Sierra Club Florida.

For more information go to www.psr.org/tampa.