narrator: on this episode of "earth focus," the most basic humaneed is also its most precious commodity. in california's central vley, home to 19% of the food production in the world, many live without clean drinking water whi the edge of morocco's sahara region, harvesting water frohas the potential to deeply impact a culture. [camera focus ring cg] [shutt clicking]

sheri hunter: th was the drug store-- the rust-colored building. on the other side of it was the barber shop the history of allensworth as i know it is colonel allensworth--when he retire from the army--wanted a place where he could go and settle with his people, which wasn't too many places available at the time, and he found this piece of land. during the time when there were droughts everywhere and things were bad in different townand cities, allensworth thrived. it thrived because they knew how to make it thrive. start with what you have. make something with it and never be satisfied. that's a quotation by george washington carver--

denise kadara: booker t. hunter: no. george washington carver. but colonel allensworth made that happen here because this was ours. this was our history. this was our town. we did it. and when i say "we," i'm saking of blacks. tokadara: tulare lake usee the largest freshwater lake west of the mississippi, back in the 1890s. and as farming became more prevalent in the area, the water started being diverted for that. anit really has hadan a signifimpact on e community. the community was thriving, but no community thrives without quality water. e

this is what i h do to get it. and the good thing is they'vgiven us these pots, so it's manageable for us to get the water, but i'm able to do this. kids may not be or the elderly may not, but this issystem for water. [stove dial clicks] it's coming. [bell ringing] [traiwhistle blares] hunter: in the past, is a bustling lite town,

like i said. people from all around came here. i hate that it was chipped away at. the downfall of this community was water. and i'm here right now 100-plus years s latll trying to work atip this townthis community, getting good, affordable, quality water. jessi snyder: all right. so i'd like to start with the test s well repomary... we were finally able to complete a test well recently, which was the main point of discussion at this morning's meeting. and the test well did indicate that we can expect to get good compliant water from this ot where we tested. they actually have two wells. the wells are ok. they're note they both have levels of arsenic in them that, in general, ceeds the maximum contaminant

level that the state sets as safe drinkingater. there's utgreat deal of science there documenting the ill effects of arsenic on human health. arsenic definitely a cancer-causing agent. it's very important that they have influence on what the ultimate project turns out to be because it has to be something that they're happy with, that they're comfortable with, that they're confident in, and that they can afford to run. jon christensen: the history of is really the history of watery in california and in the american west. you know, agriculture does use something like 8 of the water in california, and it is made, you know, a multibillion-dollar industry possible. it's one of the gat paradoxes

of california and of the central valley and of the san joaquin valley, in particular, that in the midst of so much richness that's created by water--by growing these very valuable crops--there are people who don't have clean drinking water. amanda monaco: lanare is a small town of about 600 folks, located about 30 minutes down 41 fm fresno. it's majority laa lot of folks here make their living working in surrounng fields. ok. oh. is that, like, where, like, there's a cluster h of trailes? man: yes. yes... monaco: is it there? oh, ok... they started setting up homes

and setting up their homes in a way that was not planned by local governments around them. then and at some point, local government did become aware of the communy but did not incorporate them into an official town or an oicial city. as a rult, the way that california has dealt with small communities like lanare is that they have a system where the community itself can set up a community services district tv provide cerin vital services, like drinking water, to the residents. in the early 2000s, the community services district found that they had water that was contaminated with arsenic. so they got a grant from the federal government that was about $1.6 million toconstruct an arsenic treatment plant. [isabel solorio speaking spanish] so stay over here

and drop in the water to fill up thisbecause when they fillis th, it's more easy to drop right here. dream, the american dream... [continuesn spanish] that's because move over here. [continues in spanish] monaco: the community was really not iolved in the process of the construction of the arsenic treatment plant. happening was a lot of construction was going on, and then the bills skyrocketed. the arsenic treatment plant was

installed in 2010, about midway through the year. and then 6 months later, iwas shut down because it was too costly to operate. [solorio speaking spanish] yoram cohen: the challenge in small communities is that they're not able to actually run their ownem sy you know, they can't afford, you know, to have an operator ould be there.

and this is where varioustoriesd types of tests on mobile units for water treatment and desalination, water quality analysis, on. and this is primarily in preparation for n ofys larger scale des systems that are then field loyable. this is water, not champagne. wethl, we're looking at control interface for the plant that is running at panoche. chris linneman: we're in the panoche drainage district off of russell avenue here, los banos, at one of the pilot treatment

test sites for treating subsurface drain water. this partular project houses a project for the university of california, los angeles. and they're testing severalg processes involv reverse osmosis. if you had a series where in an area like this, in the central valley, where you have lots of small communities that are spread out over a largerea and you could put a small plant like this, a package plant--there's a poal there for cost savings--it would potentially be a game changer. cohen: is an economies of scale here. the more systems that you have, the lower the cost is. you can think about all those communities ass tially being a virtual water district. here they are connected via internet and therefore have thatenefit of being part of a district, even though geographically they'r t connected. snyder: i think it sounds very promising. d, in fact, i think if small communities are gonna have to go

to treatment, it's gonna have to be a model like that. kadara: right now, we want to make sure we have enough wat for the people to live here and for us to grow. and right now, weare at capacity because our system is older, and we need to improve that. [solorio speaking spanish] narrator: access to clean drinking water in rural californ complicated, butca in remote villages that lie within moroc's southwest mountain region, the opposite is true. here, nontraditional solutions are being embraced and giving hope to communities in need.

[khadija ghouate speaking native language] jamila bargach:ere the poverty has been staggering in teof water. people were living in perpetually endless anxiety. and many of the women were telling us how they would go thirsty and give water first to their children, to the elderly,

and to the animals. [donkey brays] [grunting] [hazna tazroute speak native language]

bargach: the water shortage and the irregularity of rainfall have made livelihood here very difficult for the households. h [vehicle hoks] [mohamed zabour speaking native language]

[aissa derhem speaking french] bargach: the impact of climate change just within the 12 years that we, as an organization, have been active in the region is really staggering. h thers been a significant increase in the heat and in the summers. the sahara ht on the other side of the mountain and is moving towards this region very steadily.

[mounir abbar speaking french] barga: fog takes away all your visuals. then it comes very, vy slowly and graciously. i run this organization that today has the largest functioning fog collection project in the world. bargach: the fog go through

the net, and then the small mocules of water that aree inside the fog are caught in the honeycomb sort of netting. and then with gravity, they descend into a gutter, and then we gather them. [abbar speaking french]

[derhem speaking french]

[abbar speaking french]

[indistinct conversation] i[houssain sousane spe native language]

[abbar speakinch] [tazroute speaking native language]

[sousane speaking native language]

[derhem speaking french] ar

announcer: focus" is made possible in part by the orange county community foundatioand the farvue foundation.

sheila: we've never ever known how to make pastrami. ma we have all of our ingredients here. ef , thank you so much. sheila, voice-over: working that grinder was very hard. marilynn: you needed big guns. well, i felt his big guns, and, believe me... you would. you would. they were big. knowing you, you would. ramen is a japanese comfort food that's become very popular. bruce: i want to take you for your first slurp of ramen. slurp? slurp! slurp! slurp! slurp! srp! slurp! ohh! ha ha! marilynn: euphoria, noodle euphoria. i love thinking about the blending of cultures in america. thank you for coming and for your lessons in culture and tradition and food. [rhythmic clapng] oh, the girls got the idea. l weove to flirt, but we're harmless. marilynn: we're the brass sisters. we have over 130 years...