The Alabama Water Institute is an interdisciplinary research institute that engages in basic and applied research on fresh water resources. The institute collaborates across multiple departments at the University of Alabama, and with the National Water Center, a NOAA facility located on campus.
Why? The National Academy of Engineering identified access to clean water as one of the major challenges facing people of the world this century. The fundamental problem is not that the world does not have enough fresh water, but that clean, well-managed water is not located, nor can it be easily moved, to those who need it.