[Extract] "We have to see the problems coming, before they come!" - Errick Simmons - Mayor of Greenville Mississippi - a podcast by Antoine Walter

Errick Simmons is the Mayor of Greenville, Mississippi, and the co-chair of the Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative. The Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative works to improve the river's water quality, restore its habitat, coordinate the state's efforts, create sustainable economies around the basin, and celebrate the river's culture and history.

About one year ago, I was working on my session as a moderator at the UN Innovate for Cities conference. What you've maybe noticed from that work are the three interviews that were featured on that podcast around nature-based solutions. But what I haven't shared here are my next steps into the rabbit hole.

Having explored how the city of Glasgow was preparing for COP 26 and had adopted nature-based solutions some years before, I had a curious eye over the part of COP 26 that revolved around these innovative ways to administer and manage a river's watershed. And I had noticed how a dynamic Mayor, part of the American governor's delegation, was brilliantly bridging the social topic, the economic one, through aquaculture and nature-based solutions at the river basin level.

You would have guessed that Mayor was Errick Simmons.

About one year down the line, I got to sit down with him on this microphone at the Rethinking Water conference in New York, thanks to Sciens Water's invitation.

Time was short, but I hope you'll get a glimpse of that other American story, where one has to be clever in government and bring together private and public funds while securing grants to guarantee the long-term sustainability of river basins and the cities they host. 

Social topics interlinked with Water. Intertwined with climate change and extreme weather events that regularly impact the region. And a water sector that needs to find a fix to overcome the silver wave.

I'll leave the floor to Errick so that he shares the solutions and initiatives he contributes to roll out and the proposition he makes to bring Water to the place it should be in the public space: right in the center. Remember, if you like what you hear, please share this episode around you with your friends, colleagues, or LinkedIn Network. 

And as always, if there's anything you don't like about this episode, pleach reach out to me and tell me what I should be doing better or differently. Come on, do it, and I'll meet you on the other side!

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