“We are proud to partner with Joe Treaster and 1h2o.org in reporting on the water crisis,” UPI president Nicholas J. Chiaia, Jr. said. “Today’s web 2.0 news environment compels collaboration. Through its various web portals, journalism learning tools, and worldwide distribution, UPI.com is facilitating cooperative coverage of water and other global issues. UPI and professional and lay individuals, as well as worldwide organizations from New Orleans to the Niger Delta, are helping tell this important story.”

UPI has crafted its Global Water Issues feature (http://www.upi.com/Features/Global-Water-Issues/) around the expertise and knowledge of individuals like Treaster in order to accurately report the causes and effects of a crisis too long ignored.  Aside from working as the editor for the University of Miami’s environmental journalism site (http://www.1h2o.org), Treaster holds an endowed chair at the University’s Knight Center for International Media, is the author of several books and a former reporter for The New York Times.

“I’m delighted that UPI is publishing my weekly column on the worldwide water crisis,” Treaster said.  “We bring to UPI an audience that is deeply interested in the environment and in the crucial role of water in the lives of everyone. Being on UPI.com greatly extends the reach of my column and of 1h2o.org.”

“The University and its School of Communication are dedicated to helping solve our world’s most difficult problems. This collaboration with UPI will support our important work on raising awareness of our planet’s fresh, clean water crisis,” said Dr. Sam L Grogg, dean of the University of Miami’s School of Communication.

The column furthers a relationship UPI began with the University of Miami through UPIU.com, a portal for aspiring journalists. It also showcases the importance that the University of Miami has placed on global water issues through a page that the university’s Knight Center for International Media has devoted exclusively to the issue of water. Titled “One Water,” the page links to http://www.1h2o.org, as well as a K-12 curriculum on water and an award winning documentary on the global importance of water.

“This link-up with UPI is an important opportunity for us to extend the reach of our work on the global water challenge over the past six years,” said Sanjeev Chatterjee, vice dean of the University of Miami’s School of Communication and the executive director of the Knight Center for International Media. Chatterjee is also the creator and director of the “One Water” documentary and the originator of 1h2o.org.