Farah Nibbs, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Water is everywhere, but freshwater supplies are limited on many Caribbean islands. Rising demand and climate change are worsening water shortages for the people who live here.
A firefighter directs water on a grass fire burning behind a residential property in Kamloops, B.C., in June 2023.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
In the lead-up to the 2024 federal budget, there was hope for investments in water management and water-related infrastructure. Those hopes were misplaced.
PFAS are showing up in water systems across the U.S.
Jacek Dylag/Unsplash
Filtering out PFAS is only the first step. These ‘forever chemicals’ still have to be destroyed, and there are many questions about how to do that safely.
Workers attempt to repair a water main break in Jackson, Miss.
Joshua Lott/The Washington Post via Getty Images
Extreme downpours and droughts, both fueled by rising global temperatures, are taking a toll. Communities trying to manage the threats face three big challenges.
Solar engineering is designed to reflect some of the Sun’s ray back into space.
John Crouch/Moment via Getty Imgaes
The big question: Would climate engineering like sending reflective particles into the stratosphere or brightening clouds help reduce the national security risks of climate change or make them worse?
A satellite image shows a powerful atmospheric river hitting the U.S. West Coast on Jan. 31, 2024.
NOAA GOES
These giant rivers in the sky are both destructive and essential for the Western U.S. water supply.
India’s new water manual aims to establish continuous piped water supply for all Indians moving forward — a goal it is unlikely to achieve.
(AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)
Achieving continuous supply requires both a realistic assessment of the situation and a realistic plan to meet the goal. The Government of India’s new initiatives have neither.
Water treatment doesn’t have to be one large, citywide system.
Deepblue4you/E+ via Getty Images
Water shortages are one of the greatest problems created by a warming world. A decentralized water system is a compelling counterargument to the notion that bigger is better.
Many colonias along the Texas-Mexico border still lack basic infrastructure, including running water.
AP Photo/Eric Gay
A webinar hosted by The Conversation brings together experts in law, health, policy and Indigenous affairs to explain some of the most pressing problems related to water in the US.
How long do chemicals really need to last?
Andrew Brookes via Getty Images
Fires here can affect meltwater timing and water quality, worsen erosion that triggers mudslides, and much more, as two scientists explain.
The village well in Mchinji, Malawi. Just 37% of the population of sub-Saharan Africa will be using safely managed.
drinking water by 2030.
Melissa Cooperman/IFPRI/flickr
Australia’s emerging green hydrogen industry requires a secure supply of high-quality water. Competing demands for this scarce resource mean careful planning is needed to meet all water users’ needs.
Hundreds of freshwater basins across the world, including the dried-up Santa Olalla permanent freshwater lagoon, in Spain’s Doñana National Park, are the most likely to experience social and ecological impacts due to freshwater use.
(Donana Biological Station/CSIC)
While we know how global changes in freshwater pose risks to humans and ecosystems, we know less about how people and ecosystems will respond to these global freshwater challenges.
Stalagmites grow from the cave floor up as water drips down.
Gayatri Kathayat
As water dripped in a remote cave, it left behind evidence of every monsoon season for a millennium. Scientists say it holds a warning for a country about to become the most populous on Earth.
A satellite image shows how vast the remnants of Typhoon Merbok were as the storm hit the Alaska coast.
National Weather Service
Most of the flooded communities are Indigenous and rely on subsistence hunting that residents would normally be doing right now. Recovering from the damage will make that harder.