Susan K. Barnett

Susan K. Barnett is a former award-winning investigative journalist with ABC News and NBC News networks, and founder of Cause Communications, which focuses on elevating current issues and voices. An active advocate for access to critical safe water, sanitation, and global water security, she led communications for Global Water 2020, a three-year advocacy and acceleration initiative. Barnett seeks to unite a multi-faith voice around the single symbol all religions share—water—as founder of Faiths for Safe Water.

Ddungu Annet, a 39-year-old nursing officer, washes her hands in the labor ward before examining an expectant mother at Nabweru Health Center, Uganda.
Poverty

The Economic Constraints on Clean Water

Investing in water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) reduces the financial costs of disease outbreaks

Zapotec woman washes her hands during the COVID-19 pandemic in Oaxaca state, Mexico, on March 31, 2020.
Environment

Remembering Paul Simon's Water for the World Act

photo of cardinal michael cerzny
Poverty

Water Is Life

by Susan K. Barnett

An interview with Cardinal Michael F. Czerny on the Catholic Church’s water, sanitation, and hygiene project

Ruqqayah Abubakar lies on a bed after being treated at an obstetric fistula repair centre in Maiduguri, Nigeria August 1, 2018.
Gender

Preventable but Prevalent: An Injury Affecting Millions of Mothers

by Susan K. Barnett

Two solutions that could help women in low-and middle-income countries

An aerial view of the green campus with earth-colored buildings alongside a river
Food

Rethinking Farming in Rwanda

by Susan K. Barnett

The Rwandan Institute for Conservation Agriculture wants to empower small farmers

Plumes of black smoke rise up into the air behind a car as it passes the Lysychansk Oil Refinery after if was hit by a missile at Lysychansk, in the Luhansk region, Ukraine, on April 16, 2022. REUTERS/Marko Djurica
Gender

Leaving Ukraine

by Susan K. Barnett

A story about helping people with disabilities escape the war in Ukraine

A hand pump provides access to water in the village of Lal Bux Lund in Pakistan's Sindh province on July 8, 2011, but 1 in 4 health facilities around the world lack basic water services. The picture shows two girls, one pumping, the other washing, and both laughing. REUTERS/Akhtar Soomro
Urbanization

Getting WASH into Health Care Facilities: An Urgent Global Health Need

by John Simon, Susan K. Barnett

Will the UN’s prioritization of clean water, sanitation and hand washing in health care facilities finally breed action?