Given long-term forecasts for growing urban populations and an increasingly variable climate, local authorities will have to think about how best to encourage people to conserve water.
A center-pivot sprinkler with precision application drop nozzles irrigates cotton in Texas.
USDA NRCS/Wikipedia
An invisible crisis is brewing in US farm country as the overpumped Ogallala-High Plains Aquifer drains. The key drivers are federal farm subsidies and the tax code.
High-efficiency showerheads save water and energy.
mppix/iStock via Getty Images
The Trump administration is rolling back a regulation that requires showerheads to conserve water, which saved owners an average of US$70 and nearly 3,000 gallons of water yearly per showerhead.
As utilities upgrade their systems, some households are facing steep rate hikes for the cost of water.
(Shutterstock)
With partnerships between landowners, the government and businesses, South Africa can invest in its wetlands and boost the country's potable water reserves.
The enthusiasm for recycling water that Australians had at the height of the drought little more than a decade ago has waned.
Shaney Balcombe/AAP
Cities relied entirely on conserving and recycling water to get through the last big drought. We now have desalination plants, but getting the most out of our water reserves still makes sense.
Chemicals poured down the sink or pumped into the atmosphere can eventually end up in the groundwater, which means less available fresh water for us to use.
Flickr/Kamil Porembiński
While making small volumes of pure water in a lab is possible, it’s not practical. The reaction is expensive, releases lots of energy, and can cause really massive explosions.
Developing a map of African countries' water poverty levels offers a transparent analysis for policymakers, governments and organisations that deal with water issues.
Informal settlements in Cape Town only use 4.7% of the city’s water.
Flickr/Blackwych
Australian cities have turned to some very costly solutions when water is scarce. But as the world's second-highest users of water per person, more efficient use and recycling are key.
Low levels at Cape Town’s Theewaterskloof Dam. Smart meters could slow water loss.
Reuters/Mike Hutchings
Smart meters may help water saving initiatives as the drought persists in South Africa’s Western Cape. It can help those who need achieve saving targets.
Cape Town is doing an outstanding job of managing residential water use.
EPA/Nic Bothma
There is an increasing demand for water in cities like Cape Town. The current drought exacerbates this. But there are ways to use and save water sustainably.
Lake Powell, photographed April 12, 2017. The white ‘bathtub ring’ at the cliff base indicates how much higher the lake reached at its peak, nearly 100 feet above the current level.
Patti Weeks
The Colorado River supplies water to millions of people and irrigates thousands of miles of farmland. New research warns that climate change is likely to magnify droughts in the Colorado Basin.
For the Barkindji people, the Darling River has been a symbol of Aboriginal survival since colonial times. Now, the once busy NSW town of Wilcannia is in danger of losing its water.
Oroville Dam in California, where water levels had fallen 30% by 2014.
Dam image from www.shutterstock.com
With a future of droughts looming for the US West, Utah’s Wasatch watershed offers a good model that combines conservation with nature-based recreation.
Samual A. Graham Dean, and William B. Stapp Collegiate Professor of Environmental Education, School for Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan
Professor of Political Economy at the Department of Geography and Fellow of Fitzwilliam College; Director, University of Cambridge Conservation Research Institute, University of Cambridge