Water Clock Project: Sustainability and Water

Water shortages contribute to many regional conflicts worldwide. Only two-and-a-half percent is fresh, and it is therefore a precious commodity. This documentary illustrates how the worsening problem of global water shortage leads to regional political and social conflicts, destruction of economies, and famine.

Drought, increasing populations, and shifting rainfall patterns are placing ever-greater demands on water supplies. But this video clip focuses on all that precious liquid we flush away. Can our wastewater be safely recycled for human consumption?

With fresh water making up only 3 percent of the world’s supply, are we looking at a global crisis in the making? Some say it’s already upon us—whether for drinking, growing crops, or proper hygiene, shortages are emerging all over the planet.

Competition for freshwater is heating up. Is war inevitable, or is a peaceful solution possible?

The UN Environment Program has identified approximately 150 dead zones in the Earth’s seas—some more than 40,000 square miles in size. Examining causes ranging from too many partially cremated bodies in the Ganges to defunct sewage systems in Nairobi, this program explains how watercourses flowing into the seas are being polluted and coastal areas are being destroyed.

The Doñana marshland. The oyster beds below Rio. The Caspian’s sturgeon fishing grounds. The coral reefs of the South Pacific. This program travels to Spain, Brazil, Iran, and Fiji to observe efforts to mitigate severe ecological damage to these sensitive regions—places primarily spoiled by water pollution, with causes as varied as upland agricultural runoff and the rupture of a mine tailings dam.

Nothing is so familiar, and yet so elusive, as water. A running faucet would require 136 trillion years to discharge the Earth’s 326 million cubic miles of water, but only fresh water—less than three percent of the global supply—can sustain life. As we transport, utilize, and consume water, we are tempted to view it as eternally plentiful.

"To manage the country, we must first control the waters," is an ancient Chinese saying that is more true today than ever. This program documents farmers’ hardships—droughts that leave Shanxi Province bone-dry and floods that inundate the lands bordering the Yangtze River—and discusses the exacerbating effects of deforestation and urban growth.

This program traces the water cycle, beginning with the collection of rainwater in rivers and lakes, in great detail through a water treatment plant, to some of the places where water is used, and finally back into the atmosphere. Treatment of the water begins with the use of chlorine to destroy organisms; the water is then filtered through various sedimentation tanks to remove solid matter. Other treatments employ ozone, which oxidizes everything and makes it easier to remove; hydrated lime, which reduces the acidity of the water; sulfur dioxide, which removes any excess chlorine; and flocculation, a process in which aluminum sulfate causes small particles to clump together and precipitate out.

In some regions of the country, a water well for each home or cluster of homes is the best way to supply a community with drinking water. This program covers the fundamentals of an independent home water system, with step-by-step details of the process of well drilling, construction, and equipment installation. The video also advises on how to plan the project, including what kind of experts can help determine the location, depth, and expected yield of the well.

As current sources of fresh water become increasingly inadequate to support the needs of North America below the Canadian border, the U.S. and Mexico are looking toward their northern neighbor for relief. This program examines the political and commercial ramifications of NAFTA on the bulk export of water, as well as initiatives to conserve and recycle fresh water in the Sun Belt and in northern Mexico.

Will rampant overdevelopment of agriculture, housing, and industry increase the demands for freshwater beyond the finite supply? This program examines the role of high-level corporate and political players in the shrinking availability of what is already the most precious substance on Earth.