Episode Details

Clean water and sanitation touch nearly every part of life: health, education, safety, economic opportunity and human dignity. 

On this episode of Big Blend Radio's "Table & Compass" Podcast, Lisa D. Smith is joined by co-hosts Joelle Machia and Ryan Slough of Wanderers Compass for a conversation with His Excellency Ambassador Dr. Nabhit Kapur, Permanent Observer to the United Nations for the Pan-African Intergovernmental Agency on Water and Sanitation for Africa (WSA).

Dr. Kapur began as a psychologist and mental health advocate, founding the Peaceful Mind Foundation and World Leaders for Mental Health. He explains how that work in Africa led him to the UN and to water and sanitation. He shares why women and girls are central to the solutions, including through his WaterHer initiative, and what happens to a community when clean water is a long walk away. He also describes a visit to a small town in Ghana where children walk five kilometres each way for a bucket of water.

The conversation covers how a small UN observer mission works, from taking ideas to member states to getting them to the grassroots, and how WSA's science-based approach shapes its projects. He describes the sanitation and water clubs in Nigerian schools and a youth sanitation and water Model UN planned for next year. Joelle and Ryan add what they've seen traveling, including Sint Maarten's dependence on rainwater and desalination and the questions they ask hotels about protecting local water. The episode ends with what gives Dr. Kapur hope.

Recorded just ahead of UN General Assembly 81 in September 2026. Whether you live in a city, a village or a hotel lobby, you can ask what is happening with water in your own community.

RESOURCE LINKS:
- Dr. Nabhit Kapur on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drnabhitkapur 
- Water and Sanitation for Africa (WSA): https://wsa-un-ny.org/index.php 
- UN Sustainable Development Goal 6, Clean Water and Sanitation: https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal6 
- New episodes of Big Blend Radio's "Table & Compass" Podcast air every first Monday, here: https://table-and-compass.podbean.com/  
- Learn more about Joelle Machia & Ryan Slough, Founders & Publishers of Wanderers Compass: https://www.wandererscompass.com/  
- Explore Big Blend Radio and Big Blend Magazines: https://www.bigblendmediahouse.com/