On the banks of the Orange River in South Africa, Mina Guli had a thunderbolt moment.
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The Victorian global water advocate was in the middle of an effort to run across seven deserts in seven continents over seven weeks.
During her run in the Richtersveld semi-desert in South Africa, her crew as forced to cross the Orange River.
"We were supposed to put our car on a barge to cross the river but it was too low and barge got stuck and we had to winch the car back," Mina said.
"I said to the local ranger 'have you ever seen it this low' and he said never in his life. I asked 'what is it normally?', he said 'there's no way you can walk across it, it's normally six or seven metres above us'.
"I asked when was it last (that high) and the ranger said it was about six or seven years. It had dropping a metre a year."
Mina found that the cause of the river's depletion was due to a commercial grape plantation that was taking water from the river unregulated and unmanaged.
"They were using all the water and it was causing rampant devastation all the way down stream," she said.
"One of the guys from the plantation said 'grapes aren't a food, they're a luxury'. They're shipped all over the world and put on tables where people just throw them out.
"I stood on bank of the Orange River and I felt the ground shift a little in one of those moments and I stood there and thought 'this is a moment that is going to fundamentally affect the rest of my life.
"Because it was a moment that I realised I'm not going to get a real job. I'm going to keep running until the planet is no longer running dry.
"It's a commitment I made to myself but more importantly to the planet and the next generation - that I was going to run for as long as it takes and do whatever I could to fix this problem."
In places where they have run out of water, there is no life, no economy but also no society. A lack of water causes society to close down. So, why water? Because without water we have no life and without water what life is there? Nothing.
- Mina Guli
Before her South African epiphany in 2016, Mina had been working to help solve the global water crisis for five years after establishing the non-profit organisation Thirst in 2012.
After a career in law, climate change and investment, Mina's focus on water came from discovering how reliant the world was on water without knowing it.
"By 2030 experts predict a 40 per cent greater demand for water than the supply that will be available - that's a massive amount," Mina said.
"If climate is a shark, water is the teeth - the thing that will bite us first.
"In places where they have run out of water, there is no life, no economy but also no society. A lack of water causes society to close down.
"So, why water? Because without water we have no life and without water what life is there? Nothing."
According to Mina, the global water crisis has developed beyond an environmental problem. It is a social and economic problem as well.
"That's because water goes into everything we use and buy and consume every day," she said.
"In the context of the food you eat, (the amount of water used) in one hamburger is the equivalent of taking a shower for two hours.
"We don't think about water used for the cotton that went into the pants you're wearing, the leather in your shoes, the wool in your sweater. One outfit takes more water than what you would drink before your 40 years old.
"When you think about water in that context, water is not only an emotional and environmental issue, but it is an economic and social issue."
Speaking so passionately on water, it is no surprise that LEAD Loddon Murray asked Mina to be a keynote speaker at the launch of the organisation's Power to the People program.
The program will see 10 teams spend 14 months working on solutions to a complex, pervasive sustainability-related issue facing the central Victorian region- like the global water crisis.
LEAD Loddon Murray executive officer Leah Sertori said Mina was a wonderful example of the future leaders the organisation hopes to attract to the program.
"Mina's background is in law and finance, she's child of the corporate sector who came to work at a global level and became aware of the impending global water crisis and decided to dedicate her life to action on that issue," Ms Sertori said.
"That's why we reached out to Mina to launch the program. She really embodies the traits and leadership style we're hoping to develop in people who complete Power to the People."
With the world's next generation set to offer a number of solutions to sustainability issues such as the global water crisis, Mina said it was important for the current generation to change its behaviour to help provide more time for a solution to be found.
"The next generation is filled with ideas and innovations to help us solve problems," she said.
"But we need to extend the time for fixing this problem as long as we can so when the next generation comes through, we have time to fix it.
"And at our rate of water use that's not going to happen."
Mina said it was important for people to adopt the current solutions that have been offered when it comes to the water crisis.
"Some of it is about finding solutions but a big part of it is adopting solutions that are already out there and that doing things differently and smarter," she said.
"Things like reducing food waste, that's a behavioural waste problem. Think about what you want eat what's on your plate and save the leftovers. It's simple but we don't do it.
"We still use disposable coffee cups, we still drink from plastic bottles when could use our own.
"It's about breaking habits. I'll say 'I really want to get a coffee but I'm stuck because didn't bring my cup', so what do I do? The first thing I think is 'I'll get a takeaway cup' but the easy option is to say have in glass and I'll drink it here.
"It takes marginally longer and means there isn't a coffee cup ending up in landfill for rest of your life and more.
"We need to think about how we live on this planet and that's a much bigger element of change. When we have exhausted that change, we can look at the application of new technology."
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