[dramatic music] - It's easy to think that, okay, water is free, and I don't need to take care of it.

As a global society, we have taken water for granted, and that has to stop.

- Kelp is a small part of a solution to some very, very very big problems.

It's not gonna solve all our water quality issues, but it's part of a solution.

[bright music] - Hello and welcome to "GZERO World."

I'm Ian Bremmer, and today we are talking about something none of us can live without, but billions take for granted, water, clean water for drinking, for cooking, for living our daily lives.

It's at risk in many parts of the world including right here in the United States.

We're gonna help you understand the growing crisis of water stress and what it means for all of us.

And I'm talking with Gilbert Houngbo.

He is the chairman of UN-Water.

Later, one solution for water preservation might be closer and tastier than you think.

Don't worry, I've also got your puppet regime.

- I would like to report a missing package.

- What was in the package?

- Facial hair, comb, and paper towel dispenser.

- But first, a word from the folks who help us keep the lights on.

- [Announcer] Major corporate funding provided by founding sponsor First Republic.

At First Republic, our clients come first.

Taking the time to listen helps us provide customized banking and wealth management solutions.

More on our clients at firstrepublic.com.

Additional funding provided by Jerry and Mary Joy Stead, Carnegie Corporation of New York, Prologis, and by... [bright music] - Think fast, how many oceans are there on Earth?

Take a moment, it's been a while since your SATs.

The answer is one.

Now, it does have a different name, depending on where you are geographically, Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, you get it, but the planet is covered by one massive body of water, totals 71% of Earth's surface.

The ocean also represents 96% of all the water on Earth, and that leaves a comparatively small amount of fresh water that we need to survive for a pretty big number of human beings.

In roughly the last 100 years, fresh water use has more than quadrupled.

Now sure, you're thinking, the population grew, the global economy grew, and that is, of course, true, which means we use more water.

The problem is nobody ever said that there is more water.

Increased demand was already depleting rivers and lakes and reservoirs at an alarming rate, and climate change and warming global temperatures are only making matters worse.

Droughts, like the one California endured, the worst in its recorded history, are happening around the world.

And while bands of heavy storms have helped matters in the short term, the risk of drought impacting lives and industry is far from over.

The picture in poorer nations is of course, much more challenging.

UNICEF reports that as many as 4 billion people half the world's population, experience at least a month of severe water scarcity every year.

2 billion live in areas where the water supply is inadequate all year round.

And water scarcity could drive as many as 700 million people to migrate by 2030.

Water, something we've taken for granted for generations and certainly, here in the United States, may well become one of the most precious and precarious of resources.

Scarcity is already leading to increases in acute hunger, displacement of millions, and steep rises in regional conflict.

UN member states recently announced a historic treaty to protect 30% of ocean areas by 2030.

That move could make a big impact on environmental protection and for preservation of biodiversity, and that is important.

But scientists say much more action is needed for that 4% of fresh water we need to live.

And right now, we're going through it, well, like water.

I'm going through all that and more with Gilbert Houngbo, Chair of UN-Water, and former prime minister of Togo.

Prime Minister Houngbo, thanks so much for joining us on "GZERO World."

- Thank you so much for having me on your show.

- So, I thought I'd start with some good news, which of course is this effort that you've put so much time into that was called the Treaty on the High Seas that I've just seen announced that apparently we're talking about what, 30% of international waters will be protected for biodiversity.

Given that we've never had an international agreement before, that sounds like some progress.

So, can you walk us through a little bit on what this treaty is meant to accomplish?

- First of all, you have to understand that the problematic on water is so complex.

Now, more and more, what we are trying to is to bring everybody, all countries, to really adhere to the same way of addressing the same issue that we are facing while respecting the national circumstances that every government has to observe.

And you have to look at that from a different dimension.

And one important one is, water can be used for peace.

At the same time, water can be a security issue between countries, so we need to keep in mind that a major challenge that we still have is the basic access to drinkable water and sanitation.

Since 2015, we have made some progress.

We have, in the last eight years or seven, eight years, 600 million people that now have access to drinkable water services.

At the same time, we need to keep in mind that we have 2 billion people that still don't.

- Now lack of access to clean water, to drinkable water, how much of that is bad governance?

How much of that is lack of resource?

Where do you see the biggest challenges in the coming five, 10 years that you're trying to address?

- I think we have a mix of both, bad management or bad long-term planning is quite a serious issue, not only planning for water, but also planning for climate change.

As a global society, we have taken water for granted, and that has to stop.

Water has to become everyone's business and therefore, the investment in water-related infrastructure for us is the key.

So, we found ourself in the same storm, but not necessarily in the same boat.

So, it is going to be very, very important for us to use that water as a cross-cutting, let me put it this way, investment.

In almost every region, you have countries that are having water stress.

What makes it even worse is when you bring the agriculture dimension.

We know that agriculture is more or less 75% the use of water.

So, addressing the issue of practices, talking again about management or governance, improving practices in agriculture and making the agriculture practices climate-friendly, climate-sensitive and use of technology will help us particularly, in countries that are water stressed.

- So when I look at Yemen, which has virtually no water access as a country itself, you've got cholera outbreaks and other significant disease, because you don't have proper sanitation and water.

How do we go about, I mean, if the water's not there, how are we going about addressing that?

I mean, what does it mean to fix the water problem for a country like Yemen, how do you do that?

- A country like Yemen, you really have to go with a multi-pronged approach.

So we need to look, first of all, you can look at desalination, because at least Yemen, you have the sea or to desalinate.

I can talk later on, on Somalia and in Ethiopia where you don't even have the access to the sea.

Infrastructure is going to be key in Yemen, investment infrastructure and technology.

And you'll have to consider desalination, but that is expensive.

This is where also official development cooperation comes to play.

Sometime it's true, when you look at it, it's kind of, okay, where do we start?

But you just need to invest at the same time in the different dimensions.

- So, how do you even measure success?

We kind of all know, like 1.5 degrees centigrade global warming, if we get past that, we've got serious problems.

Everyone can watch that.

Everyone can monitor it.

What do we do when it comes to global water?

Are there metrics like that, that we can talk about that are easy to get people to understand?

- Yeah, this is what the UN-Water, which is a consortium of the 30, 34, or 35 different UN agencies that are in working one with the other in water.

We do have metrics like the number of citizens that have access or not to drinkable water or to sanitation or the different type of components and the reuse of water and different type of metrics.

What is happening, of course, is more difficult than the climate change, the 1.5 degree you gave, because most of people, sometime you might think that the major problem are in the big cities, but most of the poor people that are really suffering from water scarcity are in the rural area, and therefore I must confess, that the data and the quality of data is challenging on that.

And what is also the metrics is also important is how some of the nexus between water and climate change.

And for example, when you look at some of the big rivers, some of them are losing 10%, 20% each year or some years of their reserve.

And the ability to measure that and more and more using artificial intelligence is also going to help us.

- And where do you see, I mean, given AI breakthroughs have been extraordinary in being able to assess very accurately monitor sensor availability of resource and avoid waste, where do you think that's gonna have the biggest impact in the water crisis in the next five, 10 years?

- I think it's in agriculture.

The amount of water that is necessary and the ability to reuse the waste water, and the more technology AI also will, particularly the costs of the technology, will go down, and to help increase the basic transformation of the agriculture production, that will help reducing the global waste, lost and waste.

And you see, the loss and waste in agriculture is around 30, 35% of product, and that will also help us to reduce the amount of water needed.

- I want to ask you another climate-related question, because, of course, part of the reason why we've gotten ourself in this fix of climate change is that people have treated carbon emissions as free, as costless, it's not a part of the problem.

Part of the reason that we've gotten into a water challenge is because people in industry treat water as free.

So, do we need to think about water as a global commodity?

And if we did, what would the price be?

- I mean, the price, if we didn't, the price would be what we are already feeling.

I remember, and I'm an old one, but I remember my first year in university, that's where in the late 70s, early 80s, where we start saying that we have to start considering water as a good, as a public good, which is first thing.

Secondly, it is also important on one hand and to make sure that while people have access to basic water services, we also take measure from a policy perspective, measure to avoid wastes in the use of water.

Because sometime, it's easy to think that okay, water is free, and I don't need to take care of it.

The third dimension, which is link, is how do we fight against pollution at the country level, at the community level, be it in large cities or small cities.

We really need to really ensure that we minimize the risk of pollution of rivers.

- Now, how do you think about privatization processes?

We've seen in many cases where municipal plants suddenly are being taken over by companies, and as they're driving more inequality is it creating efficiency and improving the water situation?

I know there's not one quick answer to that, but you see the entire range.

Generally speaking, how's that been working?

- I think well-managed is something that I encourage, but well-managed, because it depends.

When you have in some countries, when the government, in terms of governance, is very well organized, then the water services can be led by the government, by the public sector.

But at the same time, the policy, if well in place and if it's privatized, privatized should not mean automatically that the price are going up.

That's where I think the government have to set up the regulatory environment to ensure, for example, something that is very close to my heart, that the population at risk of being left behind, that are vulnerable, they still have that minimum quantity of water a month that is free or at a very, very, very cheap cost.

Then privatization also means that the government put in place means to control, to supervise and to inspect the quality of water and to ensure that the private company are there to the agreed way forward in the existing policy.

So, I think well managed is not necessarily a bad thing.

- So, when you look out in the next, let's say 10, 20 years, do you think the way that we presently use water as consumers, are we gonna be able to maintain most of that use looking forward?

When I look at climate change, it does make me wonder about to what extent your job is doable long-term.

- No, I'm positive on medium, long-term that progressively our habits, our way of life, we will adjust, improve.

And when you think about it, we have been adjusting on that.

I'm sure in the morning, before you shave, you want to make sure that you don't just the water running per se.

And 20 years ago or so, maybe we don't even think about that.

The other thing, I'm very confident also that with IoT, Internet of Things, it will also help us, again, what we said about agriculture, knowing the quantity you need.

In our household, daily management, the IoT I believe is going to also be helpful for us to change our habits and also the consumption.

- Prime Minister Houngbo, thank you so much for the work you're doing, and I appreciate you joining us today on "GZERO World."

- Thank you so much for having me on your show, much appreciated.

[bright music] - And now, to a Long Island farmer who's been called the Johnny Appleseed of kelp, didn't know there was one of those.

GZERO's Alex Kliment has his story and what it means for the environment.

[bright music] [sea birds calling] - This is the best time of year to eat seaweed.

It's got a crunch, it's crisp.

You can dry it, right, crumble it up, and you put it on pizza, love it.

- Don't let the Italians know about that.

They're still angry about pineapple, but yeah, okay, yeah.

[upbeat music] Kelp, it's slimy.

It's tangly, it's pungent and delicious.

And if you ask this guy, Michael Doall, this shimmering sea plant has a role to play in tackling two of the world's biggest challenges, climate change and a hungry planet.

Mike, a former oyster farmer, is associate director of shellfish restoration at Stony Brook University's School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences.

These days, he's focused on kelp research, like really, really focused.

- My favorite band, Grateful Dead, the song, "Help on the Way," I change it in my head all the time to "Kelp on the Way."

- "Kelp on the Way," I have a guitar in the car.

We're gonna have to rock on this afterwards.

- [laughing] All right, love it, love it.

- I met up with Mike recently in Mauritius Bay off the south shore of Long Island where he's conducting research and helping local oyster farmers to plant sugar kelp during their winter off season.

- So this is one of seven experimental kelp lines that we have in the water.

This line is 100 feet, okay, from anchor to anchor.

And it's a staked line of sugar kelp.

This, by May, this kelp will be 12 feet long.

And to grow something that big in two feet of water is really cool.

- But before we went any further, I had to ask Mike something basic.

What is kelp?

- Kelp is a type of seaweed, and the amazing thing about kelp and why it gets a lot of attention as a aquaculture crop, as well as an environmental crop, are just these incredible growth rates that it has.

- [Alex] And while it grows, kelp does some amazing things for the environment.

- So just like plants on land, seaweeds do photosynthesis, and when they do photosynthesis, they're taking up the carbon dioxide out of the water, and they're releasing oxygen.

And, carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas that's accumulating in our atmosphere, causing climate change, and carbon dioxide at the same time is also accumulating in our oceans.

Just like plants on land, also, the seaweeds are sucking up dissolved nitrogen outta the water to grow.

That's a bigger area of the research we're doing at Stony Brook University is looking at sequestering this nitrogen, because too much nitrogen entering our bays and estuaries is the root cause of a lot of problems.

- [Alex] Traditionally, kelp is grown 20 to 30 feet below the ocean surface, but Mike figured out how to grow it in water that's shallow enough to stand in.

That's a big deal, because shallow waters suffer some of the worst nitrogen pollution problems, which can harm other crops like oysters.

Kelp really does sound like a kind of miracle plant.

Studies show that adding kelp to animal feeds can keep cows from burping up methane an unexpectedly major source of greenhouse gases.

And the potential uses for kelp go even further than that.

- There's a lot of research going on looking at using seaweeds for biofuels, for bio packaging, creating plastics.

- [Alex] But the greatest thing about kelp, Mike says, is that it can do all of these things while asking almost nothing in return.

- The first thing to understand about seaweeds, it's a zero-input crop, okay?

You don't add anything, so you don't add food, you don't add fertilizers, you don't add insecticides, no pesticides, no fresh water.

- [Alex] Mike's research out here on Long Island is also part of efforts to solve another global problem.

- [Narrator] Big, bigger, biggest.

- [Alex] The United Nations predicts that the global population will be nearly 10 billion by 2050.

And that for everyone to eat properly, we'll need to increase food production by 60%.

Where's it gonna come from?

Experts say underwater is a great place to start.

After all, oceans cover 70% of the planet, but produce just 2% of our food.

Aquaculture, the organized farming of seaweed, shellfish, and finfish can play a big role.

- A lot of countries, protein's becoming a bigger component of diet in many developing countries around the world.

So you're having a greater protein consumption per person and more people, and the wild fisheries just haven't been able to meet that extra demand.

And that whole extra demand over the last several decades has been met through aquaculture.

- [Alex] And while fish farming can be resource intensive, seaweed and shellfish are sustainable crops.

- So not only are we growing food, we're doing it in a way that's good for the environment, and we're doing it in a way that's sustainable.

And, so it's kind of the intersection between food and the environment right here.

- Where would you like to see kelp farming in 10 years?

What's the ultimate goal?

- The ultimate goal.

I think kelp is a small part of a solution to some very, very, very big problems.

It's not the panacea to everything.

It's not gonna solve all our water quality issues, but it's part of a solution.

- Kelp can help.

- Kelp can help, I love that.

Get by with a little kelp from our friends.

♪ I get by with little kelp from my friends ♪ - [Alex] For "GZERO World," I'm Alex Kliment.

♪ I get by from a little kelp from my friends ♪ [bright music] - And before we go, a special delivery for Iran Supreme Leader didn't show up or so he thinks.

Roll that tape.

- Good evening.

Some experts say Iran has been trying to get around sanctions in a way you will not believe.

[phone rings] - Hello, customer service, with whom do I have the pleasure of speaking?

- Yes, hi, this is Ayatollah Ali, I mean this is Al calling from Iowa, Persia, Iowa.

I would like to report a missing package.

- What was in the package?

- What?

It's sensitive.

It was like facial hair, comb and paper towel dispenser, and highly specialized integrated microchip circuits, what I usually order.

- Oh, sir, my records show your package was delivered yesterday.

- Yesterday, that's a lie!

Why must you turn this call into a house of lies?

- Please hold.

[phone beeps] Hey, Cheryl, I'm stuck on the crossword.

What's a five-letter word for make off like a blank in the night?

[grunts] [phone beeps] Sir, thank you for holding.

Your package was delivered yesterday at 3:39 PM.

- Are you calling me a liar?

Do you know who I am?

I am the Supreme Leader of Iowa.

- That's so great, sir.

Is there nothing else I can help you with?

- You can find my package.

Let me speak to the manager!

- Yes, please hold.

Thief!

T-H-I-E-F, thief!

- What?

- Oh sorry, I thought you were on hold.

Sir, have you looked at your doorbell cam?

Maybe someone took the package.

- Oh, now you are telling me how to do surveillance?

I'll have you know that...

Wait, oh, the doorbell cam, yes, let me see this doorbell cam.

- Okay, let's see here, a microchips, check.

- [gasps] Vladimir Putin?

Can't he evade sanctions on his own?

That little son-of-a... - What he ordered Eat, Pray, Love, what the heck?

[bright music] ♪ Puppet Regime ♪ - That's our show this week, come back next week, and if you like what you see, even if you don't, but you just want something sparkling and refreshing, why don't you check us out at gzeromedia.com.

[bright music] [bright music continues] [bright music continues] [bright music] - [Announcer] Major corporate funding provided by founding sponsor First Republic.

At First Republic, our clients come first.

Taking the time to listen helps us provide customized banking and wealth management solutions.

More on our clients at firstrepublic.com.

Additional funding provided by Jerry and Mary Joy Stead, Carnegie Corporation of New York, Prologis, and by... [bright music]