Andrew Young School, Albany State launch water policy center
at the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies

ALBANY - An enduring drought has shriveled Georgia's lakes and rivers - and the supply of policy experts who might find solutions to the state's water woes has dried up too.

To improve the situation, the Andrew Young School and Albany State University recently inaugurated a new planning and policy research center designed to address water allocation issues and educate students on ways to identify fair policy solutions. Ron Cummings, director of the Andrew Young School's Environmental Policy Program and Georgia's only eminent scholar in water policy, represented the school in leading the initiative.

The joint venture, dubbed the Flint River Regional Water Planning and Policy Center, was championed this year by Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor (D-Albany) and other members of the Georgia General Assembly to tackle water shortage problems affecting the state's consumers and businesspeople. The policy center will give local stakeholders, particularly south Georgia farmers, a vehicle to discuss water allocation issues with water negotiators and legislative leaders, said Jerry Usry, who will serve as the water policy center's director.

The Andrew Young School will contribute the expertise of its internationally recognized research faculty to the water policy center. Albany State will provide the venue and offer a graduate teaching concentration in water resources management and policy. Faculty members from the Andrew Young School will teach many of the courses.

"I see this center as the first step in positioning Georgia at the forefront of developing water policy researchers and professionals, who are highly sought after in a world increasingly challenged by water scarcity," said the Hon. Andrew Young, who gave the keynote speech at the center's June 28 opening ceremony at Albany State.

The establishment of the center marks the culmination of years of effort by agricultural, conservation, industry and municipal groups, along with the University System of Georgia, to work with the legislature to provide a vehicle for responsible research, teaching and leadership in the water planning and policy process in the lower Flint River basin, Taylor said.

"The center affords the region the opportunity to access some of the state's brightest minds on the critical problem of water scarcity," he added.

The Flint River watershed's lower basin is Georgia's breadbasket, where food and fiber production and processing have a multibillion-dollar impact. For more than a decade, the region's dwindling water resources have been at the forefront of debate - as well as a lawsuit - between officials in Georgia, Florida and Alabama.

"Georgians must begin to think about water differently than they have in the past," said Cummings. "In a world of water use limitations, of interstate and potentially intrastate competition for water, Georgians must come to understand the 'rules' of behavior in this new world . . . however objectionable they might appear under conditions of the past."

Photo above: OPENING DAY: The Hon. Andrew Young addresses the audience at the opening of the Flint River Water Planning and Policy Center June 28 at Albany State University. The center's goal is to find ways to deal with water scarcity in Georgia.