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Teen inventor wants to better the world with her water-cleaning system

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In the summer of 2008, three consecutive days changed everything. Seven 19 year-old friends living in Southern California would learn about the global water crisis through a series of unlikely people and events, and embark on a journey that would give birth to this organization.

Like all great things, it started with coffee. I met up with a friend who was the first person to ever expose me to the global water crisis. Until this moment in my nineteenth year, I had no idea that this was even an issue. I had no idea that there were people living in our world who didn't have access to basic, safe drinking water. I learned that there were people who are literally forced to drink from swamps, mud puddles, earth dams or whatever standing water source is available to them. I learned that waterborne diseases kill more children in the world than anything. I learned that, then, 1.1 billion people didn't have access to safe, clean drinking water. My entire worldview was shattered. This one conversation changed everything. Coffee. The next day, I attended a screening of a movie in Los Angeles that dealt with the realities of extreme poverty and genocide in developing countries. The next day, at church (yes, people go to church in Los Angeles...even college students), the pastor began talking about "missions" initiatives, and specifically focused on the needs of safe, clean water in the world. I knew this couldn't be coincidence. Over the next several months, through my own research and several uncanny, seemingly chance encounters that could only be described as God at work, I met with some of the most prominent individuals and organizations exploring ways to provide solutions to this problem, and knew I had to take action.

As a 19 year-old college student living in one of the most expensive cities in the world without a dime to my name, all I could think was, "What can one person really do?" I didn't really know, but I knew that I couldn't live with this new knowledge inside of me and not do something. So, I gathered seven of my closest college friends together and we decided to simply tell these people's story. We pooled all of our money together (which literally amounted to $70) and were able to purchase 1,000 bottles of water from our nearest grocery store. (We MAY have laid it on pretty thick and begged the manager for a crazy discount.) We took to Hollywood Boulevard and began giving away free bottles of water so that we could get people to stop and talk to us, so they would ask us, "Why are you doing this?" We asked them, "Did you know? Did you know that (at that time) over one billion people don't have access to safe, clean drinking water?" In one day, we spoke to over 1,000 people. We raised awareness about the water crisis to these people with hardly any plan other than to simply tell people. Almost everybody gave back for the water that they took, and we were able to turn $70, into $1,700. This was used to fund our first rehabilitation of a freshwater well.

We thought we were finished. We had helped raise some money to help give a community safe water, so we thought we could go back to living our own lives. That is, until people started calling and asking us to bring our "organization" to their school to speak about the water crisis so they could help and get involved. "Organization?" We thought. "We're just eight college kids. We have finals next week!" After multiple requests, we decided to give it a shot. In our first month, these school speaking events raised over $12,000. It was then that we realized that, despite the huge number of water organizations and agencies that exist to address the global water crisis, NOBODY was activating students - young people- around this issue. So, we created Thirst Project. Thirst Project was born out of a bunch of twenty-somethings using the only thing we had- the only thing we knew how to do- to simply tell the story of people without safe water.

Today, ten years later, we travel the country to middle schools, high schools and college campuses speaking to people our age to educate students about the global water crisis, and challenge them to take action to end it. When we leave, students are equipped to do their own fundraisers and make a real impact on the issue. In just ten years, we've raised over $10 Million and funded projects to provide over 400,000 people with safe, clean water! The need is great though. We can no longer ignore the #1 global killer of children. Our goal with Thirst Project is to provide safe, clean water and sanitation to the entire Kingdom of eSwatini by 2022. With your help, we believe we can do this. With your help, we can give water. With your help, we can give life.

Seth Maxwell
Founder & CEO

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In the summer of 2008, three consecutive days changed everything. Seven 19 year-old friends living in Southern California would learn about the global water crisis through a series of unlikely people and events, and embark on a journey that would give birth to this organization. Like all great things, it started with coffee.

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Salva Dut was born in a rural village in southwestern Sudan to the Dinka tribe. At 11 years old, the Sudanese Civil War reached his village and separated Salva from his family. He joined thousands of boys, famously known as the Lost Boys of Sudan, on their journey by foot to seek safety in refugee camps in Ethiopia and Kenya. After living in refugee camps for 10 years, Salva was given the opportunity to move to the United States, where he was embraced by a family in Rochester, New York. Several years later, Salva learned that his father was still alive in Southern Sudan but was suffering with a disease caused by waterborne parasites. His father's illness inspired Salva to help both his father and his country by bringing clean water to those in need. This was the beginning of Water for South Sudan.

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Salva Dut was born in a rural village in southwestern Sudan to the Dinka tribe. At 11 years old, the Sudanese Civil War reached his village and separated Salva from his family. He joined thousands of boys, famously known as the Lost Boys of Sudan, on their journey by foot to seek safety in refugee camps in Ethiopia and Kenya.

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From agriculture to sewage and septic systems, what is polluting the Chesapeake Bay--and what is being done about it?

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Five years ago, the drinking water source for Flint, Mich., was switched, setting the stage for the city's water crisis.

In the years since, residents of the aging industrial city have seen their children's blood lead levels spike, government officials grudgingly admit mistakes and perhaps seen Flint begin to recover.

It's still common to see claims on social media that Flint still doesn't have clean water. However, tests have shown Flint's tap water has improved greatly since the depths of the water crisis. Now, it's well within federal and state standards for lead, even better than many other cities.
The outrage
The city's water problems all began with an optimistic toast.

"Here's to Flint," Mayor Dayne Walling said as he lifted a glass filled with tap water. Walling and other city and state officials were toasting the switch of the city's drinking water source from Detroit's water system to the Flint River.

The switch was intended to save money, but instead cost the mayor his job.

At first, Flint's nearly 100,000 residents complained their tap water was undrinkable: cloudy, foul smelling and tasting of chemicals or worse. The system also suffered E. coli outbreaks. Eventually, the city acknowledged it was in violation of the Safe Drinking Water Act.

But government officials persisted in defending the water as safe to drink.

Outrage grew. Flint residents took to the streets to voice their anger. Chanting "Flint lives matter," the growing protests demanded the city return to Detroit water.

After 18 months, government officials admitted the switch had been bungled. In October 2015, Flint was switched back to Detroit water.

It was only revealed after the city's drinking water was switched back that a Legionnaires' disease outbreak had killed at least a dozen people during the switch. There are conflicting scientific opinions as to whether the Flint River water was the source of the outbreak.
"We have to be where we are to move forward"
In the past few years, 15 city and state officials have been indicted for their actions related to the crisis. About half have cut plea deals. No one has gone to jail. And the remaining criminal cases are stalled as Michigan's new attorney general tries to decide how to proceed. Meanwhile, multiple civil lawsuits against state and federal agencies and private contractors are grinding their way through the courts.

Flint was left with thousands of damaged water pipes, families surviving on bottled water, and a battered self-image.

Later this year, the city hopes to inspect the last of nearly 30,000 pipes connecting homes to city water mains. Crews are replacing old lead and galvanized service lines with new copper pipes. But residents are still advised to use filters on their taps as the pipe replacements continue.

Federal and state funds are helping Flint fix its broken water system. And that in turn is attracting business investment.

Stylist Dan Buccilli and his husband, David Custer, opened a new hair salon in downtown Flint last month in a rehabbed print shop. Custer, who is also a local TV anchor, says Flint is better off now than it was before the water crisis.

"We joke ... that we have some of the best water in the country now," says Custer. "We have brand-new pipes around our entire city."

Linnette Phillips, the deputy director of small business and workforce development for the city, says this year Flint has about $200 million in new business investment coming in, from new auto parts manufacturing to a new culinary school.

"Of course, no one would ever want to experience this travesty that the city of Flint experienced," says Phillips. "But we have to be where we are to move forward from that."

But while businesses are moving forward, many city residents are having trouble.

Flint's unemployment rate remains high and median income is less than half the state average, with more than a third of city residents living below the poverty line. And it's not surprising to see long lines still forming outside churches during weekly bottled water giveaways.

Flint resident Melissa Mays has been one of the loudest voices during the water crisis. But even she can see some silver linings. "In some ways we're better," says Mays. "In other ways, we're forever poisoned, damaged, traumatized ... that's not gonna ever be better."

Flint still faces a long road to recovery.

For example, it will be several years before studies will be able to show whether drinking Flint's lead-tainted tap water affected the cognitive and behavioral development of thousands of young children.

It is the future of those children that will determine whether Flint truly emerges stronger from its water crisis.

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5 Years After Flint's Crisis Began, Is The Water Safe?

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Five years ago, the drinking water source for Flint, Mich., was switched, setting the stage for the city's water crisis. In the years since, residents of the aging industrial city have seen their children's blood lead levels spike, government officials grudgingly admit mistakes and perhaps seen Flint begin to recover.

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Protecting the Everglades | National Wildlife Federation

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The National Wildlife Federation is working to protect the Florida Everglades from natural stresses like fires, hurricanes, floods, and droughts.

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2018 water crisis in South Africa--What happened?

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2018 water crisis in South Africa--What happened?

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A roadside car-wash operator in Delft, a township on the outskirts of Cape Town, was fined the equivalent of about $250 for illegal water use. Credit... Joao Silva/The New York Times

CAPE TOWN - It sounds like a Hollywood blockbuster. "Day Zero" is coming to Cape Town this April. Everyone, be warned.

The government cautions that the Day Zero threat will surpass anything a major city has faced since World War II or the Sept. 11 attacks. Talks are underway with South Africa's police because "normal policing will be entirely inadequate." Residents, their nerves increasingly frayed, speak in whispers of impending chaos.

The reason for the alarm is simple: The city's water supply is dangerously close to running dry.

If water levels keep falling, Cape Town will declare Day Zero in less than three months. Taps in homes and businesses will be turned off until the rains come. The city's four million residents will have to line up for water rations at 200 collection points. The city is bracing for the impact on public health and social order.

"When Day Zero comes, they'll have to call in the army," said Phaldie Ranqueste, who was filling his white S.U.V. with big containers of water at a natural spring where people waited in a long, anxious line.

It wasn't supposed to turn out this way for Cape Town. This city is known for its strong environmental policies, including its careful management of water in an increasingly dry corner of the world.

But after a three-year drought, considered the worst in over a century, South African officials say Cape Town is now at serious risk of becoming one of the few major cities in the world to lose piped water to homes and most businesses.

Hospitals, schools and other vital institutions will still get water, officials say, but the scale of the shut-off will be severe.

Cape Town's problems embody one of the big dangers of climate change: the growing risk of powerful, recurrent droughts. In Africa, a continent particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, those problems serve as a potent warning to other governments, which typically don't have this city's resources and have done little to adapt.

For now, political leaders here talk of coming together to " defeat Day Zero." As water levels in the dams supplying the city continue to drop, the city is scrambling to finish desalination plants and increase groundwater production. Starting in February, residents will face harsher fines if they exceed their new daily limit, which will go down to 50 liters (13.2 gallons) a day per person from 87 liters now.

Just a couple of years ago, the situation could not have looked more different here. In 2014, the dams stood full after years of good rain. The following year, C40, a collection of cities focused on climate change worldwide, awarded Cape Town its "adaptation implementation" prize for its management of water.

Cape Town was described as one of the world's top " green " cities, and the Democratic Alliance - the opposition party that has controlled Cape Town since 2006 - took pride in its emphasis on sustainability and the environment.

The accolades recognized the city's success in conserving water. Though the city's population had swelled by 30 percent since the early 2000s, overall water consumption had remained flat. Many of the new arrivals settled in the city's poor areas, which consume less water, and actually helped bring down per capita use.

The city's water conservation measures - fixing leaks and old pipes; installing meters and adjusting tariffs - had a powerful impact. Maybe too powerful.

The city conserved so much water that it postponed looking for new sources.

For years, Cape Town had been warned that it needed to increase and diversify its water supply. Almost all of its water still comes from six dams dependent on rainfall, a risky situation in an arid region with a changing climate. The dams, which were full only a few years ago, are now down to about 26 percent of capacity, officials say.

Cape Town has grown warmer in recent years and a bit drier over the last century, according to Piotr Wolski, a hydrologist at the University of Cape Town who has measured average rainfall from the turn of the 20th century to the present.

Climate models show that Cape Town is destined to face a drier future, with rains becoming more unpredictable in the coming decades. "The drier years are expected to be drier than they were, and the wetter years will not be as wet," Mr. Wolski said.

As far back as 2007, South Africa's Department of Water Affairs warned that the city needed to consider increasing its supply with groundwater, desalination and other sources, citing the potential impact of climate change.

Mike Muller, who served as the department's director between 1997 and 2005, said that the city's water conservation strategy, without finding new sources, has been "a major contributor to Cape Town's troubles."

"Nature isn't particularly willing to compromise," he added. "There will be severe droughts. And if you haven't prepared for it, you'll get hammered."

Ian Neilson, the deputy mayor, said that new water supplies have been part of the city's plans but "it was not envisaged that it would be required so soon."

Cities elsewhere have faced serious water shortages. Millions of Brazilians have endured rationing because of prolonged droughts. Brasília, the capital, declared a state of emergency a year ago. Experts say the water shortages in Brazil, which have affected more than 800 municipalities across the country, stem from climate change, the rapid expansion of agriculture, bad infrastructure and poor planning.

Here in Cape Town, the water shortages have strained political divisions, especially because much of the responsibility for building water infrastructure lies with the national government led by the African National Congress.

"The national government has dragged its feet," said David Olivier, who studies climate change at the University of the Witwatersrand's Global Change Institute.

The national government controls the water supply to Cape Town, other municipalities and the province's agricultural sector, including the large wine industry east of Cape Town. In the first two years of the drought, experts say, the national government failed to limit water supplies to farmers, intensifying the problem.

But the city made mistakes, too. Last year, instead of focusing on "low-hanging fruit" like tapping into local aquifers, the city concentrated on building temporary desalination units, said Kevin Winter, a water expert at the University of Cape Town's Future Water Institute.

"It takes a lot of time to build desalination modules, three to five years, and at considerable cost," Mr. Winter said. "They're even costlier to build during a crisis."

Mr. Neilson, the deputy mayor, acknowledged that "some time was lost." The city, he said, had now "shifted our efforts dramatically."

The city is stepping up its efforts to cut consumption. With water and time running out, Mr. Neilson said he was "acutely aware" of needing to scare people into changing their behavior without causing them to panic, adding, "I don't think we quite got that right yet."

So far, only 55 percent of Cape Town residents have met the target of 87 liters per day.

Helen Zille, the premier of Western Cape Province, which includes Cape Town, wrote in The Daily Maverick last week that she considers a shut-off inevitable. The question now, she said, is, "When Day Zero arrives, how do we make water accessible and prevent anarchy?"

Cutting back is a difficult message to convey in one of the world's most unequal societies, where access to water reflects Cape Town's deep divisions. In squatter camps, people share communal taps and carry water in buckets to their shacks. In other parts of the city, millionaires live in mansions with glistening pools.

In vast townships like Mitchells Plain, residents without cars wondered how they could even carry water containers home from a collection point.

Faried Cassiem, who works as a cleaner but does not have a car, said his wife would have to fetch water for his household of eight.

"There are so many guys just standing around, with no jobs, so I'll just give them two rands to carry the water," he said, referring to the equivalent of about 17 cents.

As Day Zero looms, some were stocking up on water at two natural springs in the city. Others were buying cases of water at Makro, a warehouse-style store.

In Constantia, a suburb with large houses on gated properties with pools, some residents were installing water tanks in their yards.

At one house, Leigh De Decker and Mark Bleloch said they had reduced their total water consumption from the city to 20 liters a day, down from 500 liters a day before the drought. Instead, they now draw from two 10,000-liter tanks of treated well water, and were waiting for two additional tanks to be delivered.

Several weeks before Day Zero, their use of city water should come down to zero, they said, estimating that it will cost them about $4,200 to become completely self-sufficient.

"It allows you to have a certain lifestyle without drawing on resources that other people need," Ms. De Decker said.

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Dangerously Low on Water, Cape Town Now Faces 'Day Zero'

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CAPE TOWN - It sounds like a Hollywood blockbuster. "Day Zero" is coming to Cape Town this April. Everyone, be warned. The government cautions that the Day Zero threat will surpass anything a major city has faced since World War II or the Sept. 11 attacks.

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Something odd is happening to streams and rivers on the high plains of Kansas and Colorado. Some have disappeared.

"We would go and visit these streams, and in many cases it's like a dirt bike channel. It's no longer functioning as a stream," says Joshuah Perkin, a biologist at Texas A&M University who studies the fish that live in these streams.

These waterways, he says, were partly fed by groundwater: Water moving underground, through rock and sand, draining into streambeds or bubbling up in natural springs. That groundwater kept the streams flowing through dry periods.

But people have been tapping those underground pools of water for themselves. They've drilled deep wells, mostly to irrigate farmland. "We're growing crops in a region that's arid and becoming increasingly arid," Perkin says. "And the way you grow crops when you don't have rain is to pull water from the ground."

Farmers have pumped so much water that in some places, the water table has fallen by more than a hundred feet. The water is now so deep underground that it can't flow into streams and rivers anymore. Streams dry up, and as a result, fish and plants and birds around those streams also disappear.

This is happening in other places as well, such as California's Central Valley, northern India, and the North China Plain.

Hydrologist Inge de Graaf, at the University of Freiburg, in Germany, wanted to see the whole global picture of groundwater depletion, including how it might change in the future.

She and her colleagues created a computer simulation of groundwater and rivers all around the world. They threw in a heavy dose of climate change; an extreme scenario, with lots of warming.

"One of the goals of this study [is] raising awareness. To explain what is happening under our feet," she says.

The results of her study have just been published in Nature. The computer model shows a future with less rainfall; farmers then pump even more groundwater to make up for that deficit. As a result, in places where farmers rely on groundwater, the flow of water in streams and rivers shrinks dramatically. In half of them, it falls beyond a kind of ecological limit. "Healthy ecosystems cannot be sustained" at that level, de Graaf says. "The plants and the fish that live in the rivers or the lakes, they will die."

De Graaf says that she doesn't want people to panic. "It's pretty alarming, but there also are things we can do about it, to avoid it," she says.

That includes, of course, cutting greenhouse emissions to slow global warming. In addition, some places, including California and parts of Kansas and Texas, are moving to reduce the amount of groundwater that farmers can extract from the ground.

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Irrigation For Farming Could Leave Many Of The World's Streams And Rivers Dry

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Something odd is happening to streams and rivers on the high plains of Kansas and Colorado. Some have disappeared. "We would go and visit these streams, and in many cases it's like a dirt bike channel.

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This map is disturbing, once you understand it. It's a new attempt to visualize an old problem - the shrinking of underground water reserves, in most cases because farmers are pumping out water to irrigate their crops.

The map itself isn't hard to grasp. The colored areas show the world's largest aquifers - areas which hold deposits of groundwater. The blue ones are doing fine; more rainfall is flowing into them than is being pumped out of them for homes or irrigating fields. As a result, these aquifers can continue to play a vital role in the environment. (Water in most aquifers doesn't just sit there. It flows slowly, underground, and ends up sustaining rivers and lakes and all the creatures who live there.)

The aquifers that are painted red, orange, or yellow, meanwhile, are being drained rapidly. How rapidly? That brings us to the complicated part of this graphic.

See those large grey shapes, below the map? Each one is a magnified reflection of an over-exploited aquifer. The amount of magnification represents the amount of water that people are currently pumping out of that aquifer, compared to the rate of natural replenishment. Tom Gleeson, at Montreal's McGill University, and Ludovicus P. H. van Beek, at Utrecht University, in the Netherlands, created this graphic for an article they published in this week's issue of the journal Nature.

They call those magnified shapes the "groundwater footprint" of each aquifer's exploitation. The footprint of the Upper Ganges aquifer, for instance, is 54 times bigger than the aquifer itself. Think about that footprint this way: It's the size, on a map, of the area that would be required to catch enough rainfall to replenish that aquifer and make up for all the water currently being pumped out of it.

Some of these aquifers are being exploited at a stunning rate, but what's truly alarming is how many people depend on that over-exploitation for their food. These aquifers include the Upper Ganges, covering densely populated areas of northern India and Pakistan, and the North China plain, which is the heart of corn-growing in that country. The aquifer of Western Mexico has become a large source of fruit and vegetable production for the U.S.

The High Plains aquifer in the United States, meanwhile, is having a particularly bad year. Farmers are pumping even more than usual, because of the drought afflicting this part of the country, and it is getting less replenishment from rainfall. So water levels in the aquifer are falling even faster, leaving less water for the region's rivers, birds, and fish.

This can't go on forever. Already, many farmers are being forced to dig deeper wells to get at that water. But bigger changes are on the way: New irrigation technologies that use water much efficiently; a shift to different crops that demand less water; and in some areas, they'll just have to stop using those underground stores of water altogether.

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Here's Where Farms Are Sucking The Planet Dry

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This map is disturbing, once you understand it. It's a new attempt to visualize an old problem - the shrinking of underground water reserves, in most cases because farmers are pumping out water to irrigate their crops. The map itself isn't hard to grasp.

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New data from NASA's GRACE satellites show that many of the world's biggest aquifers are being sucked dry at a rate far greater than they are being replenished. Although scientists don't know how much water is left, they hope their findings will serve as a " red flag" for regions that may be overusing water.

Globally, scientists estimate that roughly 2 billion people rely on water supplied from underground aquifers as their main source of freshwater. Groundwater is also used for farming, especially during times of drought.

GRACE measures water under the ground by measuring its gravitational tug, and it watched 37 aquifers around the world over the course of 10 years to see what was happening to the water they held.

The results are not entirely surprising.

Groundwater is being rapidly depleted in the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia. The aquifer under California's drought-stricken Central Valley is also being overused. Other places, such as the sparsely populated and very wet Amazon Basin and the U.S. Great Plains, where crops are grown using mainly rainwater, fared better.

Researchers at the University of California, Irvine, which led the study, say that, while the data provide reliable estimates of use, they can't say for sure how much water is left in the aquifers. Nevertheless, they fear that depleting the underground water supply could increase the risk of conflict around the world.

Their work is published in the journal Water Resources Research.

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NASA Satellites Show World's Thirst For Groundwater

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New data from NASA's GRACE satellites show that many of the world's biggest aquifers are being sucked dry at a rate far greater than they are being replenished. Although scientists don't know how much water is left, they hope their findings will serve as a " red flag" for regions that may be overusing water.

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The two biggest threats to the Everglades ecosystem are water quality and water quantity. With rapid development on both coasts and an expanding agriculture industry, the human demand for water is increasing rapidly while the supply is not changing. This leads to less and less water for the Everglades system and degredation of the ecosystems there. The water control structures built in the first half of the twentieth century interrupted the natural sheet flow from Lake Okeechobee south to Florida Bay. Now water flows through canals, locks, and dams directly to the ocean to prevent floods during high rain periods, espcially during hurricanes. This further reduces the amount of water that reaches the Everglades.

What little water that does enter the Everglades system is often polluted and full of nutrients from runoff. Fertilizers from agriculture and pollutants from ever expanding urban centers contribute heavily to the low quality of the water entering the system. These pollutants lead to changes in vegetation and community composition and are detrimental to native plant and animal species.

Other threats to the Everglades ecosystem include urban encroachment from all sides, invasive exotic species, and loss of natural processes such as fire. South Florida is one of the fastest growing regions of the country. All of these new residents need places to live and water to drink, and the suburbs are continuing to encroach into the Everglades system. Exotic species have also slowly been invading the region and are threatening native populations. Many of these exotics are successful because they take advantage of unnatural alterations to the Everglades environment. An example is the control and reduction of wildfires that normally would benefit the native species that are dependent on a regular fire regime for seed dispersal or the removal of competitors. These are simple examples of a very intricate and complicated system that is being pressured from all sides.

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The two biggest threats to the Everglades ecosystem are water quality and water quantity. With rapid development on both coasts and an expanding agriculture industry, the human demand for water is increasing rapidly while the supply is not changing. This leads to less and less water for the Everglades system and degredation of the ecosystems there.

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World Wildlife Fund

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Photos and videos of wildlife, places, and nature from WWF.

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Water scarcity is the lack of sufficient available water resources to meet the demands of water usage within a region.

It already affects every continent and around 2.8 billion people around the world at least one month out of every year.

More than 1.2 billion people lack access to clean drinking water.

Water scarcity involves water stress, water shortage or deficits, and water crisis.

While the concept of water stress is relatively new, it is the difficulty of obtaining sources of fresh water for use during a period of time and may result in further depletion and deterioration of available water resources.Water shortages may be caused by climate change, such as altered weather patterns including droughts or floods, increased pollution, and increased human demand and overuse of water.

A water crisis is a situation where the available potable, unpolluted water within a region is less than that region's demand.

Water scarcity is being driven by two converging phenomena: growing freshwater use and depletion of usable freshwater resources.

Water scarcity can be a result of two mechanisms: physical (absolute) water scarcity and economic water scarcity, where physical water scarcity is a result of inadequate natural water resources to supply a region's demand, and economic water scarcity is a result of poor management of the sufficient available water resources.

According to the United Nations Development Programme, the latter is found more often to be the cause of countries or regions experiencing water scarcity, as most countries or regions have enough water to meet household, industrial, agricultural, and environmental needs, but lack the means to provide it in an accessible manner.

The reduction of water scarcity is a goal of many countries and governments.

The UN recognizes the importance of reducing the number of people without sustainable access to clean water and sanitation.

The Millennium Development Goals within the United Nations Millennium Declaration state that by 2015 they resolve to "halve the proportion of people who are unable to reach or to afford safe drinking water."

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water; drought research; environmental issues; resource shortage; world development; environmental policies

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Water scarcity is the lack of sufficient available water resources to meet the demands of water usage within a region. It already affects every continent and around 2.8 billion people around the world at least one month out of every year. More than 1.2 billion people lack access to clean drinking water.

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For the past four years, California has had the worst drought in its history. A rise in temperatures and a decline in rainfall have endangered several species of native fish. Lakes have dried up, crops have withered, and once-green lawns have turned brown.

As a result of the statewide water shortage, California residents have had to limit the amount of water that they can use. "Water is like the new oil around here," said Brandon Woo, a Math teacher at Foothill Middle School in Walnut Creek, California.

What has caused the drought? Scientists say that a combination of factors are to blame, including steadily rising temperatures because of climate change, a decrease in rainfall, and an increased demand for water as the state's population grows.
WHAT ABOUT THE ANIMALS?
The drought has not just affected people and land, but also wildlife. "The dry lands are causing more parasites [ticks, lice, and flies] to attack wildlife," said Alison Hermance, Communications Manager of WildCare Bay Area, an organization that helps protect local wildlife. "Almost all wild animals, including mammals and even birds, are being affected. The parasites not only annoy the animals tremendously, but they also cause a deterioration in their health."

Wildlife hospitals in the Bay Area of California have seen a significant increase on the number of animals affected by dehydration. Hermance's organization recommends that residents leave water in their yard for animals.

Wildlife experts are also seeing an increase in the number of animals being killed by rat poison. As rodents in distress invade an increasing number of homes, more people, who are unaware of the consequences, are putting out poison. Hawks, owls, and other animals may become sickened by eating a poisoned rodent, so WildCare strongly advices against the use of rat poison.
HELP FROM EL NINO
In January, just days after California Governor Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency to further limit water consumption, a miracle happened. El Niño, a rare climate shift that causes a change in temperature and rainfall, led to huge rain and snow storms-and a replenishment of the state's water supply.

But experts caution that people must continue to preserve water. "Even if the drought ends, we still have to watch our water consumption carefully, because it's limited," said Lynn Cassidy, the librarian at Foothill Middle School.

Kids can change their habits faster than grown-ups. Although we still need to shower, for example, we can decrease the number of water balloons we throw.

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For the past four years, California has had the worst drought in its history. A rise in temperatures and a decline in rainfall have endangered several species of native fish. Lakes have dried up, crops have withered, and once-green lawns have turned brown.

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Walking in Sabina's Shoes | World Vision

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South Africa is a country located at the Southern Tip of Africa. About twice the size of Texas it is home to 49 million people. This country has been stricken by affects from the long standing apartheid to the devastation that diseases such as HIV/AIDS and TB have caused. Now another crisis looms in the distance: Water. As more and more people migrate into cities from rural villages the pressure for the city to meet the water demands is ever increasing.

There are many reasons that attribute to this growing water crisis in South Africa. Climate change has affected water supplies within the region. Rains that usually come and supply the country's water has come infrequently. For example in Durban the Dams are 20 percent lower than at the start of 2010. Due to this fact cities are looking to impose water restrictions on communities.

Another problem that Durban in particular faces is stolen water. According to one report 35 percent of the cities water is stolen or given out through illegal connections.

Also, preventative measures that were put in place such as the construction of dams in the area have not even started or are still in the process of being built and those structures that are in place now are slowly collapsing. Those in rural areas still lack access to water. One report stated that in 2008 about 5 million people lack access to water and 15 million lack access to basic sanitation. This number has improved greatly since the end of apartheid in 1994, however these numbers are still too high and not one person should ever lack access to the most basic necessity of life, which is water.

Interestingly enough South Africa boast one of the most clean water systems in the world, however due to the lack of sanitation and access in the country's rural communities the threat of water borne disease is steadily increasing. The Vaal River, the largest river in South Africa and popular tourist destination is becoming increasingly contaminated with fecal material due to the lack of sanitation supplies. It is so bad that the local water agency Rand Water issued a statement that contact with the river may lead to serious infection. Wildlife is also being affected from the raw sewage run off. A court-ordered mandate was issued to remove 20 tons of dead fish from the river after a local NGO SAVE (Save the Vaal River Environment) took the Emfuelni munincipilty to court for leaking raw sewage into the river. They blamed the reason for dumping sewage in the river on old pipes.

Overall, infrastructure is lacking, whether or not it is old pipes or ignorance the South Africa water crisis is here and affecting millions. There has been a backlog in services since the end of apartheid and that needs to change. The national and local governments of South Africa need to do a better job of offering services to their people. Supplies need to be given to those most in need. By taking care of the rural population the government will be helping the cities, because it is these rural communities where the damage to the water supply is beginning due to lack of access to sanitation supplies and clean water education.

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Water In Crisis - Spotlight South Africa

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South Africa is a country located at the Southern Tip of Africa. About twice the size of Texas it is home to 49 million people. This country has been stricken by affects from the long standing apartheid to the devastation that diseases such as HIV/AIDS and TB have caused.

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Photo Credit: Flintwaterstud.org via twitter

Thanks to strict regulations imposed by the US Environmental and Protection Agency, clean tap water is something Americans take for granted. But such is not the case for the residents of Flint, Michigan. Their water supply is so tainted that President Obama declared a federal state of emergency in Flint releasing up to $5 million USD to help the city combat what is probably one of the biggest public health crisis of recent times.

The chain of events that led to this unprecedented situation began in 2013. In a bid to save money, city officials decided to stop purchasing water from Detroit and instead switch to a new water authority. This move they claimed would save the financially-strapped city millions of dollars. Given that the new water authority planned to bring in water from Lake Huron, the same source as used by Detroit, it appeared to be a smart move.

The plan, however, had one major flaw. While the contract with Detroit ended in 2014, the pipeline that would bring water from the new supplier was not expected to be ready until 2016. But the officials were not concerned. They had the perfect interim solution. They would save even more money by using water from the nearby Flint River. Though the river has a storied history because of past use as a dumping ground for chemicals and trash, it has since been cleaned up and, therefore, deemed 'safe' to use for the city's water supply.

Photo Credit: ACLU of Michigan

The switch, which was made in April 2014 was declared a "historic moment" by the city's former Mayor Dayne Walling. The State Department of Environmental Quality proclaimed that the water quality was so good that residents would not notice the difference.

But they were wrong. Almost immediately, residents began complaining about the water's foul taste and appearance. But city officials kept insisting the water was perfectly fine and safe, and the Mayor was even quoted saying "I think people are wasting their precious money buying bottled water."

Over the next few months, there would be numerous other safety concerns, including a citywide advisory to boil the water after e.coli bacteria were detected. Another red flag came in October 2014 when General Motors refused to use the water because it was rusting car parts. The city immediately agreed to allow the car manufacturer to tap into a different water line. However, they did nothing for the residents, because as they kept asserting, there was nothing wrong with the water!

It took another year, and numerous protests and expert opinions before Michigan Governor Rick Snyder finally stepped in and announced that the state would purchase water filters for schools. He also asked experts to check for the levels of lead in school water supplies. They were so high that the following week, the governor allocated $6 million USD to enable Flint to switch back to water from Detroit.

Photo Credit: compoundchecm.com creative commons

But that has not helped the issue. That's because the lead was not in the Flint River water, but being leached by the pipes that it flows through. Turns out that like most rivers, the water in the Flint River has a high concentration of chloride ions thanks to the run-off from large amounts of salt used to de-ice roads during winter. While safe for humans they are highly corrosive, which is why General Motors experienced the rusting. Hence, as the water flowed through the pipes, many of which were built before the use of lead was banned, it ate away at the coating, enabling the harmful lead to leach in. It is therefore no wonder that three months after the switch, authorities continue to advise residents to use bottled water for all their needs.

What's ironic is that a 2011 study had found that adding an anti-corrosive agent that would have cost a mere $100 USD a day would have eliminated about 90% of the current issues. Whether the officials forgot or just didn't want to add the chemical is currently under investigation as is the question of who is to blame for this catastrophe.

Meanwhile, the residents of Flint are left suffering the consequences of the poor decisions. In addition to dealing with the high lead levels in their tap water, they are also concerned about their health. A study published in the American Journal of Public Health in December revealed that the number of children with dangerously high lead levels in their blood has doubled since the water supply was switched. This is extremely worrisome given that early lead exposure is detrimental to young children whose neurological systems are still forming. It is known to result in lower IQ, behavioral issues and developmental delays.

Lead From Corroded Pipes (Photo Credit: Flinte

Though the damage cannot be reversed, health workers are trying to do everything they can to mitigate the effects. This includes educating parents about feeding young kids a diet rich in iron, calcium, and vitamin C - All known to fend off the harmful impact of lead exposure. They are also working with teachers to identify developmental issues earlier on so that affected kids can be channeled into special programs.

Even if all the health damage caused thus far is controlled, there is still the question of how the problem will be solved permanently. While Michigan Governor Rick Synder accepted responsibility for the debacle in his January 19 State of the State address and promised to fix things, it is easier said than done.

According to experts about half of Flint's residents are receiving water via corroded lead pipes. While changing water filters regularly can mitigate the problem, the only way to fix it is by replacing the pipes which according to Flint's new mayor will cost $1.5 billion USD - Money that will be hard to come by in this cash-strapped city!

Resources: miive.com, usatoday.com,cnn.com,nbc.com,abc.com,freep.com,fixthemitten.com

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Thanks to strict regulations imposed by the US Environmental and Protection Agency, clean tap water is something Americans take for granted. But such is not the case for the residents of Flint, Michigan.

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Flint's water crisis, explained in 3 minutes

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Stories of how access to clean water has improved people's lives

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A three-part exploration of water in Colorado and how topography impacts water flow in the state.

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Water scarcity is a lack of drinkable water available in a given area. It mostly affects arid and deserted areas, and places where the water is too polluted to drink. It is a social, environmental and economic problem in many countries. Water scarcity can be the result of both human and natural causes. Changes in climate and weather patterns can cause the availability of water to drop. Common human causes include over-consumption, bad governance, pollution, and increases in the demand for water.

Different terms are used to describe different types of water scarcity:

A water shortage is when there is not enough water to meet demands. Changes in the weather, such as drought can cause water shortage.

Water stress is the difficulty of finding sources of fresh water for use.

A water crisis is a situation where the available supply of potable, clean water within an area is less than the demand for it.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that by 2025, 1.9 billion people will be living in countries or regions with total water scarcity, and two-thirds of the world population could be under stress conditions. The World Bank has said that climate change could heavily change the future of water availability and use, and therefore increase water stress on a global scale.

Water scarcity has negative affects on ecology, biodiversity, agriculture and human health. It has also led to armed conflicts in several cases. Earth always has the same amount of water. People use only a small part of it.

Related pages

Images for kids

In Meatu district, Simiyu Region, Tanzania (Africa), water most often comes from open holes dug in the sand of dry riverbeds, and it is invariably contaminated.

Physical water scarcity and economic water scarcity by country. 2006

In 2012 in Sindh, Pakistan a shortage of clean water led people to queue to collect it where available

Wind and solar power such as this installation in a village in northwest Madagascar can make a difference in safe water supply.

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Water scarcity is a lack of drinkable water available in a given area. It mostly affects arid and deserted areas, and places where the water is too polluted to drink. It is a social, environmental and economic problem in many countries. Water scarcity can be the result of both human and natural causes.

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Alkalinity in major rivers

Aral Sea: trends and scenarios

Benefits from marine and coastal ecosystems and activities

Calcium levels in major rivers

Causes of sea level rise from climate change

Coastal population and altered coastal zones

Coastlines under threat

Distribution of coral, mangrove and seagrass diversity

DPSIR framework for State of Environment Reporting

Fish diversity in freshwater systems

Freshwater availability: groundwater and river flow

Freshwater stress and scarcity in africa by 2025

Freshwater withdrawal in agriculture, industry and domestic use

From wetlands to dry lands: the destruction of the Mesopotamian marshlands

Global capture fisheries and aquaculture production, 1950-1999

Global freshwater resources: quantity and distribution by region

Global freshwater withdrawal: agricultural, industrial and domestic Use

Global International Waters Assessment (GIWA) case studies

Global International Waters Assessment Tools

Groundwater: aquifers, wells and circulation

Groundwater contamination from canals - Hat Yai, Thailand

Human activities leading to coastal degradation

Indications of structural changes in the marine ecosystem, catch ratios of predatory and plankton feeding fish

Industrial areas and seasonal zones of oxygen-depleted waters

Lake Chad - decrease in area 1963, 1973, 1987, 1997 and 2001

Long-term variations in river flow, by continent

Major river basins of Africa

Major river basins of the world

Nitrate in major rivers

Phosphate levels in major basins

Regional trends in biochemical oxygen demand (BOD)

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Regulation of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers

Renewable freshwater supplies, per river basin

River fragmentation and flow regulation

River runoff by continent, 1921-1985

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Shrinking of the Aral Sea: socio-economic impacts

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Threats to the World's coral reefs

Total global saltwater and freshwater estimates

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World's water cycle: schematic and residence time

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Freshwater Stress 1995 and 2025 | GRID-Arendal

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This graphic shows the amount of water withdrawal as a percentage of the total available supply, at the national level in 1995 and in 2025 (projected amounts). Overall, the percentages are expected to rise substantially by 2025.

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Back to the water cycle on the USGS Water Science School.

Fog

Fog is just a cloud that happens to be hanging around on the Earth's surface.

Fog contains very tiny liquid water particles, like a cloud, and floats, like a cloud. Actually, fog IS a cloud, but one that swirls around your feet instead of high in the sky. Fog forms when air containing invisible water vapor encounters cooler temperatures (here, next to the ground) and the water vapor condenses out into liquid water-the cloud.

In this picture, as the day warms the air next to the ground will warm, too, and the fog particles will again evaporate back into invisible water vapor.

Groundwater flow

If you pour a glass of water onto the ground it usually sinks right in ( infiltration), so you can imagine how much water sinks into the ground during a major storm ( Find out here). Here in Atlanta, Ga, USA it rains about 50 inches/year. Over a 100 square mile (10 miles by 10 miles) area that means 87,000 billion gallons of water falls, with much of it soaking into the ground to recharge groundwater.

Yes, water below your feet is moving all the time, but, no, if you have heard there are rivers flowing below ground, that is not true.

Groundwater flow. Relate to recharge a battery.

Groundwater

When you are standing on the ground, you're not only standing on dirt, but on water-a lot of water. The dirt and rock below your feet contains lots of spaces and cracks, and water can exist in these open spaces. In fact, over 20 times the amount of water in all of Earth's rivers and lakes is in the ground.

When you pour a glass of water on your yard, the water sinks (infiltrates) into the ground and gets back into being a vital part of the global water cycle.

Of course, the rock underground is different all over the world, so how much and where water occurs of water underground is different everywhere. Deep in the ground, the rock becomes very hard and solid (no open spaces to hold water), and it also gets very hot, so no liquid water is found deep in the Earth.

Ice and snow

Ice and glaciers are part of the water cycle, even though the water moving in them changes very slowly. The amount of ice on the Earth goes up and down as the world's climate cools and warms over thousands of years.

Lucky for us we're now in a warmer phase of the Earth's history, but the last Ice Age was only 18,000 years ago. At that time, ice covered the northern part of North America.

Ice and glaciers are still around today, as this picture shows. In fact, most of the world's freshwater, about 68 percent, is locked up in ice, snow, and glaciers.

Oceans

If you look at this picture (or click on it for a larger version) you see that "tiny" blue ball sitting in the middle of the United States-if all the water on, in, and above the Earth was collected in one big ball, this is the size it would be.

The oceans are, by far, the largest reservoir of water on earth-over 96% of all of Earth's water exists in the oceans.

Oceans are important to the water cycle because almost all the water that evaporates from liquid to water vapor (which forms clouds) comes from the oceans.

Precipitation

The air is full of water, even if you can't see it. Higher in the sky where it is colder than at the land surface, invisible water vapor condenses into tiny liquid water droplets-clouds. When the cloud droplets combine to form heavier cloud drops, it can start to rain, snow, hail....all forms of precipitation.

The amount of precipitation that falls is different all around the world. In deserts, such as in Chile, it may only rain one inch per year, while on some mountains in Hawaii and in India, it can rain more than 600 inches per year. That is almost 2 inches every day!

Precipitation is the "exit ramp" back to earth from the water-cycle superhighway in the sky that is moving clouds all around the globe.

Rivers

Most of the rain that falls stays on the land surface and, due to gravity, starts running downhill. This runoff water will accumulate in creeks ... I mean, in streams ...no, I mean, in rivers. Actually, no matter what you call them, rivers are responsible for moving a lot of water off of the land and back into oceans.

Of course, plants, animals, and people interact with rivers, as all kinds of life seems to thrive around rivers. If you look at a map of the world, you see how people naturally build their cities next to rivers.

And, as this satellite picture of the Nile River in Egypt, you can often pick out the rivers because of the green growth growing along them.

Seepage

You know all about seepage. When you spill your red fruit drink onto your Mom's white carpet, she rushes (after glaring at you) to get a sponge to soak up the liquid before it "seeps down into the carpet".

With the water cycle, seepage occurs when precipitation falls on the landscape and starts to soak into the ground. The "Why?" this happens is simply gravity. But, seepage doesn't just happen downward! Water seeps upwards and sideways, too, from the ground into the bottom of rivers, lakes, and the oceans. Some of the water you see flowing in a river has come up from the ground.

The Sun

Who's the Boss? The sun is the real boss of the water cycle, and it doesn't even live here on Earth. The sun is what makes the water cycle work. The sun provides what almost everything on Earth needs to go-energy, or heat.

The sun's heat allows liquid water to evaporate into water vapor, which in the main way water gets from the land surface back into the sky.

The sun also participates in moving water around the Earth by being the reason winds exist. The winds move clouds and the weather all over the place; all of this mixing up and moving is an important part of the water cycle.

Evapotranspiration (Evaporation and transpiration)

When a person breathes, their breath contains water molecules. All the plants around you are "breathing" and releasing water, too. The term is called "transpiration", and although a brussels sprout doesn't have a mouth, it has tiny holes in its leaves that allow water to leave the leaf, via evaporation, and go into the air.

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Interactive Water Cycle Diagram for Kids (Intermediate)

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The Water Cycle for Kids, from the USGS Water Science School.

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Join us for a journey through the water cycle! We're going to imagine ourselves as tiny drops of water falling from a rain cloud, rushing through a waterfall, and evaporating back up to the sky. We'll focus on breathing, gentle movements, and visualization for this short story.

Suitable for children aged 5-12 years old.

"Odyssey" and "Garden Music" Kevin MacLeodLicensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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Join us for a journey through the water cycle! We're going to imagine ourselves as tiny drops of water falling from a rain cloud, rushing through a waterfall, and evaporating back up to the sky. We'll focus on breathing, gentle movements, and visualization for this short story.

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Chesapeake Bay Foundation resources and activities

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Chesapeake Bay Foundation resources and activities

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You can learn about the Bay from your own backyard.

CBF presents new interactive and social resources to keep teachers, parents, and students connected to the Bay and the watershed from your own backyard, porch, or park.

As we all deal with "stay at home" directives and "social distancing," CBF educators are creating new content from their own backyards and home offices so educators and students can keep learning outside and learning about the environment. Below are a variety of student investigations and activities, blog posts on the environment and nature journaling, and videos to help your "learn at home" efforts.
For a more comprehensive list of curated activities arranged by topic, see our Resources for Teachers and Students page.
Student Investigations & Activities | Nature Journaling | Ask An Expert Video Series

Student Investigations & Activities

Great for remote learning or use in the classroom, each investigation integrates video and PDF worksheets with Chesapeake Bay watershed content and curriculum.

Follow CBF Educator Doug Walters as he explores a tributary stream and discusses how to evaluate its health. Then see if you can identify key factors related to stream health in our What Makes A Healthy Stream?"and What Lives in Our Freshwater Stream? investigation worksheets.

RETURN TO TOP
Nature journaling is a way to creatively connect and build a deep, lasting relationship with the natural world. Our blog series offers inspiration and journaling prompts.
RETURN TO TOP
How does the Chesapeake Bay's amazing natural system work? And how can we restore and protect it? Explore the answers with our CBF experts in this bite-sized video series.

Why do dozens, hundreds, or sometimes even thousands of fish wash ashore dead? What types of environmental factors can cause these mass die-offs? How can we prevent them from happening?

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You can learn about the Bay from your own backyard. CBF presents new interactive and social resources to keep teachers, parents, and students connected to the Bay and the watershed from your own backyard, porch, or park.

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How Do Trees Transport Water from Roots to Leaves? | California Academy of Sciences