Global Water Center brings temporary exhibit to mall

The Global Water Center, a Charleston, South Carolina, nonprofit, installed a temporary exhibit at Battlefield Mall designed to increase awareness of worldwide water concerns.

The roughly 25,000-square-foot Mobile Discovery Center is set up outside the Springfield mall through Aug. 22, according to a news release. It first opened yesterday and features information on the global lack of safe water, as well as a water testing station and treatment system, augmented reality stations and other interactive content.

“We are fortunate to live in a nation where almost everyone has access to clean, safe water, and it’s easy to lose sight of the perils faced by those in countries who don’t,” said Chris Holdorf, executive director of the Global Water Center, in the release. “The global water crisis is too complex to solve unless a consortium of organizations and individuals work together in development and execution of a unified, strategic plan.

"The Mobile Discovery Center ties it all together and shows how we can successfully tackle these issues.”

According to the Global Water Center, lack of safe water impacts a third of the world's population, or 2.2 billion people. Around 800,000 people die annually from preventable waterborne illness, nonprofit officials say.