Watershed Moment: The Role of Investors and Companies In Solving the World’s Water Crisis July 6, 2019 / activist360 / Leave a comment Joined by Bob Fisher, Chairman of the Gap, Inc., Henk Ovink, Special Envoy, International Water Affairs to the United Nations, and Betty Yee, State Controller of California, this plenary session at Ceres Conference 2019 underscored the urgency of the global water crisis and the collective action required to solve this potentially catastrophic issue.
There’s a Smart Way to End the Global Water Crisis July 2, 2019 / activist360 / Leave a comment https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TusJF6COfzY&feature=youtu.be Millions of people around the world could get access to safe water in their homes with the help of small, affordable loans. That’s where Water.org comes in. We are here to bring safe water and sanitation to the world through access to small, affordable loans. There is both a need and demand for these loans, because when people have access to safe water, they get time back to go to school, earn an income and take care of their family. It changes their world. For more than 25 years, with your help, we’ve been providing families with hope, health and the opportunity to break the cycle of poverty.
Pumped Dry: The Global Crisis of Vanishing Groundwater June 6, 2019 / activist360 / Leave a comment In places around the world, supplies of groundwater are rapidly vanishing. As aquifers decline and wells begin to go dry, people are being forced to confront a growing crisis. Much of the planet relies on groundwater. And in places around the world – from the United States to Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America – so much water is pumped from the ground that aquifers are being rapidly depleted and wells are going dry.Groundwater is disappearing beneath cornfields in Kansas, rice paddies in India, asparagus farms in Peru and orange groves in Morocco. As these critical water reserves are pumped beyond their limits, the threats are mounting for people who depend on aquifers to supply agriculture, sustain economies and provide drinking water. In some areas, fields have already turned to dust and farmers are struggling.Climate change is projected to increase the stresses on water supplies, and heated disputes are erupting in places where those with deep wells can keep pumping and leave others with dry wells. Even as satellite measurements have revealed the problem’s severity on a global scale, many regions have failed to adequately address the problem. Aquifers largely remain unmanaged and unregulated, and water that seeped underground over tens of thousands of years is being gradually used up.In this documentary, USA TODAY and The Desert Sun investigate the consequences of this emerging crisis in several of the world’s hotspots of groundwater depletion. These are stories about people on four continents confronting questions of how to safeguard their aquifers for the future – and in some cases, how to cope as the water runs out.