that s a trek of more than eight and a half thousand kilometres. the australian arrived at her final destination outside the un headquarters in new york city on wednesday. she says she set out looking for a water problem, but discovered a global catastrophe . and mina guli joined me earlier. i began by asking her the most striking image or story she encountered on her amazing journey. it s hard to pick. there were so many. ultimately, i wanted to use the stories of the people on the ground to help drive action.action from governments, act action from companies who represent 90% of our global water consumption, and action by individuals. and what i found was absolutely catastrophic. whether it was trekking up to the tops of mountains in central asia where
several other boats sink, and dozens more reach the italian island of lampedusa. four other boats have gone down in the region in the last three days amid an unprecedented series of departures from north africa. the world needs to urgently modifiy it s consumption of water that was the key message at the end of the un s first water security conference in almost half a centruy. un secretary general antonio guterres told the three day conference in new york that the future of humanity depended on its adoption of an agenda for water use based on science. the conference heard water scarcity is becoming endemic due to over consumption and pollution. one campaigner has literally gone a long way to highlight this issue, running 200 marathons in one year, from her native australia to america. thejourney taking mina guli through the outback down under. via the mountains and snow. and places like central asia and europe. and across the plains of africa before finally arriving in the us.
mina, i know what you saw during your travels during those marathons was as you described it a global catastrophe in the making. but in terms of inspirational stories, did you find people working together to solve these problems s can you tell us a little about that because mac yeah, so i think it s easy to look at these things and hear from companies and governments for taking action, but we can do hard things. whether it s running marathons or solving the global water crisis, we can do it needed. at the end of the day we can particularly do it if we work together. so when i started writing i was one person running in the desert. by person running in the desert. by the time i finished my 200th marathon on the steps of the united nations, we had thousands of people in over 200 countries and territories across the world running alongside of me. that gives me hope and it gives me inspiration for the future. inspiration for a monday morning, just what we need, right? mina speaking to me
i climbed up glaciers and witnessed the absolute melding a thousand glaciers, you look out the valley and what should be filled with ice is barren land. and even parts of australia which have been wrecked by droughts and floods and depredation, having an opportunity to meet some of the farmers there, or whether it s through some of the deserts of africa where women and girls have to walk for hours every day to go fast water. but it s even in populated places like europe where i am able to run under bridges because the water levels are at their lowest ever. these are all striking images that will stay with me forever. i hope this will help me to drive the action from governments and companies that we are going to need to solve this global water crisis. absolutely, mina. those images are going to stay with us for some time as well. but what exactly is it that you are looking for companies and governments to do? what kind of action do you want to see?
wracked by droughts and floods and devastation, having an opportunity to meet some of the farmers there or whether it s through some of the deserts of africa, where women and girls have to work for hours every day to go fetch water. so it s even in populated places like europe, and i could run under bridges because the water levels are at their lowest ever. these are all striking images that will stay with me forever. and i hope will help me to drive the action from governments and companies that we are going to need to solve this global water crisis. absolutely, mina. those images are going to stay with us for some time as well. but what exactly is that you are looking for companies and governments to do? what kind of action do you want to see? 50 governments to do? what kind of action do you want to see? so what i want is that action do you want to see? so what i want is that governments action do you want to see? so what i want is that governments and - want is that governments