The Surprising Solutions to the World's Water Crisis

Summary

This video explores the global water crisis, focusing on drought-stricken regions like Northern Kenya, where nomadic tribes face severe water shortages due to climate change and resource mismanagement. The video highlights innovative solutions, such as solar-powered water extraction and reclaimed wastewater systems in Singapore. It discusses how water scarcity drives conflict, impacts livelihoods, and threatens national security, emphasizing the critical role of technology and new approaches in addressing water scarcity. The video urges viewers to recognize water's value as a finite resource and the need for urgent global action to secure it.

Takeaways

• 🌍 The nomadic tribes in Northern Kenya, such as the Turkana people, have lived off the land for thousands of years, but the area has now become a parched desert due to climate change.
• 💧 By 2025, half of the world's population is expected to face water scarcity due to factors like growing populations, water mismanagement, and climate change.
• 🚰 Water is a finite resource cycling through Earth, but human activities, such as damming rivers and over-extraction of groundwater, are disrupting this natural cycle and affecting the planet's balance.
• 🔥 Climate change is making water patterns more unpredictable, with more intense rainfall in some areas and prolonged droughts in others, severely impacting communities reliant on consistent rainfall.
• ⚔️ In regions like Northern Kenya, violent conflicts over scarce water resources and pasture have become common, with hundreds losing their lives annually.
• 👩‍🌾 Women in these affected regions, traditionally responsible for water collection, face dangerous conditions when digging for water but have become central to agricultural solutions when access to sustainable water sources is secured.
• 🌞 Solar-powered water storage systems are providing a more reliable water source for communities, enabling them to grow crops and stabilize their food supplies.
• 📉 Water scarcity is not only a humanitarian issue but also a threat to national security, with regions like Iraq experiencing social unrest due to diminishing water supplies.
• 🔬 Scientists are using satellite data from NASA’s GRACE mission to track water depletion across the globe, showing a direct correlation between water scarcity and social unrest in vulnerable regions.
• 🏙 Even cities like London are facing increasing risks from both water shortages and flooding due to outdated infrastructure, with experts warning that the reservoir system could run dry within 25 years.

Q & A

What are some of the main environmental changes affecting Northern Kenya?

Northern Kenya, once a dense, flourishing forest 60 years ago, has transformed into a dry, resource-poor desert due to the effects of drought, water mismanagement, and climate change.

How is water scarcity expected to impact the global population by 2025?

By 2025, half of the world's population is predicted to face water scarcity due to growing populations, climate change, and mismanagement of water resources, leading to rising global tensions.

How are people in Northern Kenya adapting to the changing climate?

The nomadic tribes of Northern Kenya, such as the Turkana, are heavily affected by the drought, which impacts their livestock-dependent lifestyle. Some communities, with the help of organizations like Practical Action, are adapting by using solar-powered water systems and engaging in farming, which has shifted the local economy.

What traditional practices have been impacted by the changing environment in Northern Kenya?

Pastoralism, the tradition of raising livestock while moving across grasslands in search of water and pasture, has been severely affected due to the lack of rain and pasture caused by climate change.

What role do women and girls play in water collection in these communities?

In the Turkana community, water collection is culturally assigned to women and girls. They used to travel over 10 km to the river, and when it dried up, they would dig deep scoop holes to access water, risking fatal collapses of these holes.

How has the introduction of solar-powered water systems changed life in these communities?

Solar-powered water systems have allowed communities to access underground aquifers, reducing the need for dangerous water collection methods. This has also enabled women to farm, providing food for the community and extra income, which has improved their quality of life.

What potential risks do these new water systems face?

Despite the benefits of solar-powered water systems, they are vulnerable to long-term risks such as the depletion of aquifers, the breakdown of solar panels, or other unforeseeable challenges, leaving the sustainability of these systems in question.

How is water scarcity linked to conflict in certain regions?

Water scarcity often leads to violent clashes over access to water points and pasture, as seen in regions like Northern Kenya. Darnish Massud Ali notes that water deprivation can exacerbate existing social unrest and even lead to international conflict, as seen in the Tigris-Euphrates basin.

How are satellites being used to monitor water scarcity?

NASA’s GRACE Mission uses satellites to track changes in the Earth's gravitational field, which vary as water saturates the ground. This data helps scientists map water movement and depletion, offering insights into regions at risk of water scarcity and potential conflict.

What lessons can be learned from Singapore's approach to managing water scarcity?

Singapore has successfully addressed water scarcity by creating a closed-loop system called 'New Water,' where wastewater is treated and purified through advanced filtration processes and reintegrated into the water supply. This approach has helped Singapore secure its water needs and serves as a model for water-stressed regions.

Outlines

00:00

🌍 The Changing Landscapes of Northern Kenya

The video introduces the arid landscapes of Northern Kenya, which were once lush forests just 60 years ago. It highlights the severe droughts impacting the people of the Turkana tribe, who are on the front lines of the global water crisis. Growing populations, water mismanagement, and climate change are exacerbating water scarcity worldwide, and by 2025, half the global population may face shortages. The narrator, Professor Hanf Frry, explores how human activity, from blocking rivers to over-extracting groundwater, is drastically altering Earth’s natural water cycle and causing significant environmental and social stress.

05:00

💧 Climate Change, Water Scarcity, and Nomadic Struggles

The harsh reality of water scarcity is brought to life through the struggles of the Turkana people, especially women and girls who risk their lives digging deep scoop holes for water. As drought worsens, violent clashes over water and pasturelands increase. Practical Action, a development group, is introducing sustainable water systems using solar power to tap into underground aquifers. This solution is transforming women’s roles from water carriers to farmers, providing food security, education, and a sense of empowerment, though concerns remain about the long-term sustainability of these solutions.

10:02

🔬 Data, Conflict, and Water Scarcity

Water scarcity is not just a humanitarian issue but a potential cause of conflict. Technologist Darnish Massud Alivi explains how access to water is being used as leverage and sparking unrest in regions like Iraq, where upstream dams in Turkey are reducing water supply. Using data from NASA’s Grace satellites, scientists are tracking water depletion globally. The findings reveal that water stress often correlates with social unrest, and as climate change accelerates, competition for water will increase, leading to more geopolitical tensions.

15:03

🏙️ Urban Water Systems and Future Drought Risk

Dr. Anna Mi discusses the aging water infrastructure in London, which was built for a different time and is now vulnerable to modern climate extremes, including flash flooding and drought. Despite London’s reputation for frequent rain, Southeast England is surprisingly dry and at high risk for future water shortages. With growing demand and erratic weather, London’s reservoirs could run dry within 25 years. The video emphasizes that both flooding and drought are symptoms of the same problem: an overstressed water system struggling to adapt to climate change.

20:05

🔧 Singapore’s Water Revolution: From Crisis to Innovation

Singapore faced its own 'Day Zero' over 60 years ago, running out of water entirely. Since then, the country has prioritized self-sufficiency by recycling wastewater into drinkable 'new water.' Engineer Harry Seer explains Singapore’s advanced water purification process, which uses microfiltration, reverse osmosis, and UV treatment. Now, 40% of Singapore’s water comes from recycled sources, with a goal of over 50% by 2060. The success story illustrates how technological innovation and a cultural shift toward valuing water can prevent future crises.

Keywords

💡Water Scarcity

Water scarcity refers to the shortage of water resources to meet human needs. In the video, it is highlighted that by 2025, half of the world’s population will face water scarcity due to growing populations, water mismanagement, and climate change. The video discusses how this scarcity is already impacting regions like Northern Kenya, leading to conflicts over water and resources.

💡Climate Change

Climate change is the long-term alteration of temperature and weather patterns, primarily caused by human activities. In the video, climate change is shown to exacerbate water shortages, with erratic weather patterns leading to prolonged droughts and more intense rains. This unpredictable change in water availability directly impacts communities in places like Turkana, Kenya, as well as global water systems.

💡Nomadic Lifestyle

A nomadic lifestyle involves moving from one place to another in search of food, water, or pasture. The video focuses on the Turkana people in Kenya who have traditionally lived a nomadic lifestyle, raising livestock. However, due to prolonged droughts and water scarcity, their way of life is under threat, leading to conflicts and a need to adapt.

💡Aquifers

Aquifers are underground layers of water-bearing rock that provide freshwater. The video explains how humans extract water from aquifers, sometimes depleting them faster than they can be replenished. This extraction has even caused shifts in Earth's rotational axis, highlighting the scale of human interference in natural water cycles.

💡Water Conflict

Water conflict refers to disputes between different groups over access to water resources. The video depicts violent clashes in places like Northern Kenya, where water points and pasture lands are becoming increasingly scarce due to drought, leading to conflict between nomadic herders. Globally, water scarcity is becoming a source of geopolitical tension, such as in the Tigris-Euphrates Basin.

💡Scoop Holes

Scoop holes are shallow pits dug in dry riverbeds to extract water when rivers run dry. In the video, women and girls in Northern Kenya dig scoop holes to access water, sometimes at great personal risk as the holes can collapse. This practice underscores the desperation of communities facing severe water scarcity.

💡Solar-Powered Water Systems

Solar-powered water systems use solar energy to pump water from underground sources. The video describes how these systems have been implemented in Turkana, Kenya, to provide a sustainable supply of water. This technology has allowed women in the community to shift from being water carriers to farmers, helping improve their livelihoods and reduce malnutrition.

💡New Water (Singapore)

New Water refers to Singapore's system of treating wastewater to make it drinkable again. In the video, Singapore is presented as a country that overcame its water crisis by developing this innovative water recycling system, which now provides 40% of its water needs. This approach to water management is seen as a model for other regions facing similar crises.

💡Day Zero

Day Zero is a term used to describe the moment when a city or region runs out of water. In the video, examples such as Cape Town, Mexico City, and Singapore illustrate the severity of water shortages. Day Zero becomes a national crisis when there is no longer enough water to meet the population's needs, forcing extreme measures to conserve and secure water supplies.

💡Water Cycle

The water cycle is the continuous movement of water on, above, and below the surface of the Earth. The video emphasizes how human activities, such as damming rivers and extracting groundwater, are disrupting the natural water cycle. Climate change is also making this cycle more unpredictable, affecting rainfall patterns and leading to both droughts and floods.

Highlights

Northern Kenya, home to nomadic tribes for thousands of years, is now facing drought due to deforestation and climate change.

By 2025, half of the world's population will face water scarcity, with growing global tensions over access to water.

Professor Han Fry explores how humanity’s interference with the water cycle and climate change is destabilizing water resources.

Human activity, like damming rivers and extracting groundwater, has even shifted Earth’s rotational axis by 80 cm.

Drought is now a constant concern in Northern Kenya, impacting the nomadic lifestyle and leading to violent clashes over resources.

Women and girls face life-threatening conditions as they dig deep scoop holes for water in dry riverbeds.

Innovative solutions like solar-powered water pumps and underground aquifer access have transformed women's lives, turning them into farmers instead of nomadic water carriers.

Over 2 billion people currently live with water scarcity, and by 2030, 700 million people could be displaced due to lack of water.

Darnish Masud Ali analyzes water-related conflicts using satellite data to predict where future tensions may arise.

The GRACE satellite mission uses gravitational changes to map global water movement, showing severe water depletion in places like Iraq.

Water scarcity is increasingly becoming a national security issue, with countries leveraging water control as political power.

In Southeast England, London's outdated infrastructure struggles with both water shortages and flash floods due to extreme weather patterns.

Singapore faced 'Day Zero' over 60 years ago, and now relies on innovative water reclamation and purification processes to meet its needs.

Singapore’s 'NEWater' system treats and recycles sewage water, providing 40% of the nation's water needs, with plans to increase to 50% by 2060.

The global water crisis requires a fundamental shift in how we value water, with Singapore serving as a model of self-sufficiency and sustainable water management.

Transcripts

[Music]

these expansive lands in Northern Kenya

have been home to nomadic tribes for

thousands of

years if we go to the culture TR we

might have a chance to to see the

livestock done this

way but as recently as 60 years ago this

place was a dense flourishing Forest now

it has dried into a resource poor

parched desert the area is really

suffering the impact of

drought the people of takana and their

livestock are on the front line of a

battle beginning to play out all over

the world a battle to secure

water growing populations water

mismanagement and climate change mean

that by 2025 half of the world's

population will face water

scarcity and Global tensions are

rising I'm Professor hanf frry

mathematician and

writer I want to explore why the world

is toying with catastrophe over

dwindling access to water and where the

technology can help secure our future

needs

this here is part of the rift valley

sometimes known as the Cradle of

humanity because this is where the

earliest humanlike fossils have been

found well some of them at least and the

people who still live here they have a

very nomadic lifestyle they move around

looking for pasture in search of

water searching for a supply of fresh

water used to be the ultimate prior

majority of our

ancestors but today over half of us live

in towns and cities where we expect the

water to come to us

instead and while it might seem like an

unquenchable resource every drop that we

use is taken from an interconnected

cycle that's responsible for all life on

Earth Earth remember is a giant Rocky

wet blob floating in space all of the

water that we have ever had and ever

will have is already here cycling

endlessly around our planet when rain

falls it goes into rivers and lakes but

it also seeps into sediments and cracks

forming these vast underground aquifers

out at sea water evaporates becom in

clouds that drift back over land to fall

again becoming a new store of fresh

water this cycle has been happily stable

for thousands of years but now 8 billion

humans are interfering Ing we are

sucking up water from the rivers we are

damning them blocking off the supply

Downstream and we have extracted so much

water now from deep underground that

we've managed to shift the Earth's

rotational axis by about 80 cm and on

top of all of that is climate change we

have got more intense rains more erratic

weather patterns and prolonged spells of

drought the amount of water on Earth

that hasn't changed but where the water

is and when and how it moves is becoming

more and more

unpredictable the people here were never

strangers to Drought but now it is a

constant unrelenting

concern Joel and June work for practical

action an International Development

Group that is responding to the CRI Cris

in the region we identify areas with

serious challenges in terms of access to

water access to food we chose this place

because of the problems that the

community was

experiencing here the men practice

pastoralism a tradition of roaming

across grasslands raising livestock to

keep their families fed but this is a

way of life reliant on rain for pasture

to grow and that has left these people a

among the first victims of the effects

of climate change can you remember what

it was like when he was a boy how have

the rains changed since

then the pressure on the posture

does that ever result in

conflict is he angry about this about

how things have

changed the

[Music]

there are now routinely violent clashes

over livestock water points and pasture

hundreds lose their lives each year

here the strain is not only felt by the

men responsible for hurting the

livestock but also by the women and

girls of the

community water is a function that is uh

culturally left for the women they used

to go to the river which is more than 10

km from this

place when the rivers run dry women and

girls have to dig what's called a scoop

hole to extract the water Satur ated in

the river

bed how deep are we talking 10 m yes

where you're having a three people from

one person to the other handing over the

buckets of water you take from me you

take from me up to the service wow yes

most of the time it collaps in on them

collapses in is it only sand yes we have

heard incidences where the scopal do

collapse and we have fatalities as a

result

around here getting hold of water means

accepting these Unthinkable

risks something practical action have

been trying to change these storage

tanks are full of water drawn up from

deep underground aquifers using solar

power it's enough of a supply of water

to mean it can be used to grow crops in

the rich soil laying down roots in the

most literal sense means that these

women are no longer no mic water

carriers they are farmers and these

allotments have become the center of an

astonishing shift in this community's

[Music]

livelihood Susan is one of these women

who grows and tends to her crops in the

allotments the harvest gives enough to

feed the community with leftover produce

the farmers can sell earning money to

pay for school for their daughters and

your children could they go to school

[Music]

before and how about for you how has

your life Chang

they used to face malnutrition problems

a lot it's women so her life has changed

greatly if you can see from how she's

looking because that's how she has said

it she's

glowing I mean there is quite a lot of

work now for for the women though right

I mean if you're taking care of the

water but now also the food has it

changed the power Dynamic slightly

between the women and the men

here the people who live here their

lifestyle is having to change it's

having to adapt to the changing climate

but I think there's something amazingly

positive about what can happen when you

give a community

access to a sustainable supply of

water I think the only question mark

that I'm left with is how

longterm this solution can be I mean the

B hole could run dry the the solar

panels could break there could be all

kinds of things that happen that are

totally outside of anybody's

control and I do wonder what happens to

people who live in places like

this in that kind of a future

today over two billion people live with

some degree of water scarcity and this

could cause 700 million people to be

forced from their homes by

2030 but in the Region's most affected

access to water is now more than a

humanitarian

issue it's a threat to National Security

[Music]

darnish massud alivi is a peace and

security technologist interested in how

water deprivation is impacting different

regions water is this resource that we

all need of course and it's the kind of

thing that can easily become a source of

contestation it can be used as leverage

it can be the very cause the root cause

of conflict so in the context for

example of The Tigress Euphrates Basin

turkey is damning the river Upstream but

that's having Downstream consequences in

a place like Iraq where now with the

absence of water you're having

significant social unrest because

temperatures are rising quickly and the

water flow is not the same in a way then

I mean I think that the idea of say oil

being a source of conflict I think that

that makes sense to a lot of people but

the way you're describing it is that

that water is this

absolutely critical pinch Point almost

nothing Works without water nothing at

all to predict where water scarcity

could lead to conflict darnes is using

data collected from

space NASA's Grace Mission has two

sister satellites which orbit the earth

precisely tracking their distance to one

another but this distance is affected by

gravity so as water saturates the ground

the density and hence gravitational pull

changes causing the satellites to move

closer together or further

apart tracking this over time means that

scientists can construct maps of where

water is moving around the planet so if

we look at Iraq here this is how things

looked in

2007 now when we look at it 9 years

later in

2016 it's a sea of red we're able to

look at how quickly water is being

depleted in a particular country and we

take all that information that's freely

available to us as raw data and compare

it to all kinds of other information so

for example one of the things we're

interested in is social unrest and in

particular how social unrest correlates

with how quickly water is being

diminished and what do you find we find

that there is a correlation in many

instances in a situation that's already

stressed already difficult you add in

issues around water and it makes things

worse danes's aim is to provide

governments and authorities with data to

better equip them for where conflict may

arise in the future so when you're able

to have these kind of empirical ways of

measuring how much water is there you

can have a conversation that's grounded

in a set of facts different countries

have different ideas around how they

want to use water and it becomes a

sovereign matter understandably a

sovereign matter on a resource that's

not not I mean who owns it exactly and

we're going to see more and more of

these challenges as climate change

begins to affect us more when you look

at the Amazon rainforest 20% of the

evaporant from the Amazon rainforest

falls on us agricultural land whose is

it right the food security of the United

States is directly tied to the Amazon

rainforest if someone comes along and

says well I'm going to chop down all the

trees that has a direct consequence on

us food security the level of water

stress is only increasing and the need

for sharing resources is becoming more

and more

[Music]

acute when you're using water as we all

are without necessarily seeing the much

bigger

picture I think it's quite easy to

forget this view that Danes offering

there right this very Stark image of us

from space with this limited and finite

resource that will move around whether

we want it to or

not it isn't just water scarce conflict

zones that are suffering even here in

London a City built on a river trying to

control this wild natural resource is

becoming a problem Dr Anna Mi is an

expert in water infrastructure

systems if I turn on a tap in London

where does that water actually come from

around 80% of the water in London is

coming from the river temps and then we

have around 20% of water coming from the

subsurface so from the groundwater

resources London's water system is fed

by rainfall groundwater and rivers that

Supply a network of

reservoirs from here water is sent to

treatment plants before being pumped

into the Taps across the

city the sewage is then treated and made

safe before being discharged back into

the environment the entire cycle relies

on rainfall to replenish the supply so

that London can continue to

operate but this is a system that was

originally built for a very different

time the reservoir is date from the

beginning of 20th century the SE system

has been built

yeah exactly 1860s and we are now

dealing with different weather patterns

which bring different amount of water a

different times and bigger extremes and

bigger extremes with very different city

I mean if we look around us you I mean

just see how many construction sites are

around

us one of the biggest dangers is flash

flooding the Aging infrastructure cannot

cope with the more extreme rainfall

that's feeding into the already

overburdened sewage

system and while too much water is a big

problem for the city now not having

enough is a growing danger for the

future I guess we're quite lucky in

London that it rains all the

time well it rains but it's actually

relatively dry part of the UK southeast

of England you know London are at a

quite high risk of of

droughts surprisingly Southeast England

has a lower average rainfall than Perth

and South sedan combining those twin

issues of growing demand and longer

periods without rain mean that even here

in 25 years the reservoir is risk

running dry one thing that really struck

me about what Anna was saying is that

drought and flooding are two sides of

the same coin it's essentially the same

problem that you're dealing with the

stresses that this water system is under

and the way that that's only going to

get worse I I can't help but wonder

whether that would be much higher on the

political agenda if it was the other

side of the coin that we were worrying

about if we were concerned that one day

you would turn on the tap at home and

there wouldn't be any water there at

all day

Zero the day the Taps run

[Music]

dry Mexico City bangaluru and Cape Town

have all been pushed to the brink as the

city's reservoirs and Wells fell to

critical levels forcing emergency action

to be taken to save

lives but it was over 60 years ago that

Singapore fell victim to day zero its

residents no longer had access to a

single drop of clean water and ever

since securing the country's water has

been a national priority

[Music]

where do you rank in the world in terms

of how water stressed you are we as dry

at the Middle

East Harry Seer is an engineer for

Singapore's National Water Agency and

has been solving the country's water

problem for nearly three

decades Tropics you're blessed with a

lot of rain right and and surrounded by

water yeah I just R plenty of water it

rains every few days and you should be

ample water the issue in Singapore

because we are so small is a land

constraint issue we don't have luxury

like countries like UK or us where we

can afford to have huge lakes and

reservoirs you know ours is a tiny

place this lack of space LED Singapore

to develop new water a project Harry has

been working on since its

Inception every draw water is precious

to us we we collect every drop water

after it's been used clean it and return

back into the

system like London Singapore gets some

of its drinking water from reservoirs

and sewage is collected treated and

released back into the environment but

here treated Wastewater is also pumped

to new water factories where it is

purified and then sent back to feed

water hungry Industries and top up

reservoirs creating an artificial M

cycle this is high level

magic go then tell me the high level

magic okay a magician doesn't usually

reveal his Secrets but okay fine so this

is the first stage micro filtration just

imagine a filter the water molecules can

pass through but the larger contaminants

cannot does bacteria get caught at this

stage yes yeah bacteria gets caught in

the

stage microfil ation is the first step

of the three-stage purifying process the

Second Step reverse osmosis forces water

molecules through tiny pores in a

membrane filtering out larger

contaminants and finally a blast of UV

radiation kills any remaining microbes

that might have squeezed through and

it's ready to

drink I think I sort of imagine that

you'd be like chemically treating it

you'd be like adding stuff to the water

but you're really just doing fancy siing

that summarizes it perfectly

yeah fancy filtration yeah and you're

left presumably with water that doesn't

taste like sewage in the end spot on

well there's only one thing left to do

how long ago was this sewage 24 hours

ago this was probably still in the

sewage oh that tastes like water it is

just water that is

amazing currently the National Water

Agency say that reclaimed new water

supplies Singapore with about 40% of its

water needs and they hope to provide

over half of it by

2060 in the decades since Singapore hit

day Zero it has learned the importance

of

self-sufficiency they're no longer

beholden to the unpredictable movement

of

water I have to be honest with you I was

a little bit screamish before coming

here but but it's very persuasive how

quickly did people get on board if in

the UK suddenly the government says by

the way we're going to put sewage water

back into the TXS what happened there I

think in the element of trust although

it's high is something that's easy to

lose one mistake overnight is yeah that

does really strike me as something that

you've sort of cracked though that

people here do see the value of water

the principle is that water is not only

for drinking is for for life right if

you valued water then things will change

your philosophy your thinking your

approach all will

change the future of the world's water

supply is

uncertain we will continue to be faced

with too little too much and battles

over who owns it technology can help us

to find it and hold on to

it but the most powerful change we can

make in our relationship with water

might just be the way we think about

it I think for a lot of people saving

water feels like a bit of a wishy-washy

environmental concern you know like not

using plastic

straws and I don't think we've realized

certainly not in the way that Singapore

has that water is this issue of National

Security concern and here they have to

go right to Rock Bottom before they

Chang their ideas about the value of

water as a resource and and now the only

thing I'm hoping for is that the the

rest of the world learns that lesson

before we get that far

[Music]

[Music]