NAFEO Announces New Strategic Partnership with WTS
A Leader in Water Filtration & Water Quality

The National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education (NAFEO)1 announced today that it has formed a strategic partnership with Water Transit Solutions (WTS). WTS is an Atlanta, Georgia based company with patented clean water solutions that will revolutionize water filtration and water quality around the globe. NAFEO entered this partnership to place America’s 106 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and other equal educational opportunity institutions that are its members, in the forefront of leveraging their human and technical resources to improve water quality and reduce human suffering in communities across America and around the globe, especially in under- served and under resourced communities. In announcing the partnership Dr. Lezli Baskerville, NAFEO’s President & CEO stated, “contaminated water and poor sanitation are linked to transmission of numerous diseases and preventable deaths. Inadequately managed urban, industrial, and agricultural wastewater results in hundreds of millions of people having severely contaminated or chemically polluted drinking- water. In under-resourced and under-served communities in the Nation and around the globe, there are

2.1 billion people living without safely managed water services, according The World Health Organization (WHO). In partnership with WTS, NAFEO member institutions are going to substantially reduce this number and move the world closer to realizing the goal of the UN General Assembly of having 100 percent of the human population “with sufficient, continuous, safe, acceptable, physically accessible, and affordable water for personal and domestic use.”

Mr. Derek Simms, the NAFEO Director of Development and Strategic Alliances said, “NAFEO’s research indicates WTS is poised to become the leader in the water infrastructure industry using its new patented water filtration systems and water quality evaluation technologies. In the next three to five years, WTS is expected to create approximately 300,000 jobs at various skill levels as it seeks to deliver clean water across the country. Many of the areas with poor water quality and attendant health challenges in America are in HBCU service delivery areas. HBCUs have engineers, scientists, attorneys, technology professionals, communications and marketing experts, business, finance, and accounting professionals, as well as a host of other resource persons who can support and accelerate the realization of the WTS goal of revolutionizing the clean water industry and improving the health and economic outcome for millions of people.”

WTS engineers will work with NAFEO to identify HBCU and other engineering departments that it can employ to advance WTS technologies and manufacture system components that will power WTS water management systems. It will also partner with NAFEO to develop training and certification centers on HBCU and other equal educational opportunity campuses where industry professionals will be required to receive training in the WTS state of the art water system algorithms, technologies, and methodologies.

“We recognize that 2018 marks the 50th anniversary of the Memphis Sanitation Workers Strike and the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. This partnership will mark a major milestone in creating additional economic opportunities for those at HBCUs and those in their service communities-the persons for whom Dr. King and the Memphis Sanitation Workers gave their lives. It is my hope that the partnership will also yield independent, sustainable funding streams for participating colleges and universities and improve the health and wellbeing of millions of people, said WTS President and CEO Melvin Forbes. “Our team is excited about the potential for this partnership and we look forward to developing robust solutions that address the critical issues of clean water for all consumers.”

About NAFEO
NAFEO is the nation’s only 501(c) (3)-membership association of the nation’s 106 HBCUs and roughly 50 PBIs. NAFEO serves as “the voice for blacks in higher education.” NAFEO members represent more than 700,000 students, 70,000 faculty, and 7 million alumni worldwide. HBCUs have a nearly $16 billion short-term economic impact. They graduate 50% of African American public-school teaching professionals; in excess of 40% of African Americans who get advanced degrees in the sciences, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM); 60% of African American health professionals; and growing percentages of African Americans in sustainability and Homeland Security professions, the arts, and humanities. Learn more at www.nafeonation.org.

About Water Transit Solutions
Water Transit Solutions (www.watertransitsolutions.com) is an Atlanta-based company that has developed a method of providing clean, fresh water to homes and businesses utilizing bulk delivery. Based in Atlanta, Georgia, WTS serves consumers, governments and corporations. The WTS just-in-time clean water delivery solutions are based on the use of smart technology to make clean water available to both private and commercial sites. WTS was founded by Mr. Percy Jones Jr., a leader with over 30 years of experience in the water industry. Mr. Jones is a recipient of the U.S. Congressional Black Caucus Technical Innovation Award.

© 2018 Water Transit Solutions. All rights reserved.

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