narrator: on this episode of "earth focus," the most basic human need is also its most precious commodity. in california's central valley, home to 19% of the food pruction the wld, man li withoutlean driing war whileat the ee of rocco's saha regio harvesng waterrom fog s e potentl to deey impact a ulture. [camera cus ring ccking] [shutter cliing]

sheri huer: thatas the dr store-- the ruscolored ilding. on the her sid of it w e barbeshop. the hiory of aensworth as i kw it is lonel allenswth--whene retire from thermy--wand a plae wheree could and sete withis peop, wch wasn't too ny place avlable athe time, d he fou this pie of lan dung the me when ere were drghts evewhere anthings were badn differt towns d citi, allensrth thrid. ithrived cause th knew ho

o make ithrive. art wit what yohave. ma somethi witht and ner be satfied. that's a quotion by gege washiton carv-- denie kadar: booke t. hunterno. geor washingn carr. but lonel aensworthade thatappen ere becae this w ours. is was r histor this wa ur town.e did itand when say "we i' speakinof blacks. kadara:ulare lased toe the lgest frewater la west the misssippi, and ba in the890s. and as fming bece more evalentin the aa, the wat startedeing divted fothat. anit reallhas had a signicant imct on the cmunity. e communy was thrivg, but ncommunit thrivewithout ality war.

this iwhat i he to do to t it. anthe goodhing is they've gin us the pots, s it's manaable fo us to g e waterbut i'm able tdo ts. kids y not be othe eldey may no but thi is r syst for war. tove diaclicks] it's comg. [bl ringin

rain whtle blar] hunterin the pt, it wa bustlingittle to, like said. peoplfrom allround ca herei hate tt it washipped away atthe downll of th comnity wasater. ani'm re rightow 100-ps year latertill tryg to worat this twnship, is commity, tting go, affordle, qualy water. jessi sner: all ght. so'd like totart witthe test ll repo summary. we wereinally ae to comete test welrecentlywhich wa theain poinof discuion at this rning's meetin and t test we did indate that wean expecto get gd compant watefrom thispot wheree tested they tually he two wes.

theells arek. they're not very hi-produci wells, t they bo have lels of arnic ithem tha in genel, ceeds t maximumontamina vel thathe stateets as safe drking wat. there's a gre deal o scienceut the documeing the l fects ofrsenic o han healt arsenics defitely a ccer-causg agt. 's ve important that they have nfluenc on whathe ultima project turns outo be beause it s to be mething thathey' happy wh, that th're cfortableith, tha th'rconfidenin, and at ty can afrd to ru jon ristense the hisry of water the sajoaquin lley iseally thhistory water califoia d in thamericanest. u know, riculturdoes ussomethg like 0% of t water icaliforn, and it is made,ou know,

multibiion-doll industr poible. 's e of thereat paroxes califora and of theentral vley and thean joaqu valley,n partular, tt in theidst of much rchness at'created y water-y growinthese vy valule cropsthere ar people w don't have cle drinkinwater. aman monaco:anare is small town about 6 folks, located out 30 mutes dow41 from esno. it'majoritlatino. lot of folksere makeheir livg

workinin surroding fies. o oh. is at, likewhere, lie, ther's aluster of trail homes? n: yes. s... onaco: iit thereoh, ok.. hey stard settinup homes d settinup theiromes in a w that wanot pland by local gornments ound the then anat some int, lol gornment d become are of the mmunity t did no incorrate theinto officiatown or officia ty. as aesult, t way tha calornia hadealt wi small counities ke lanaris that they ve a sysm where the mmunity self canet up a commity serves distct to prvide cerin vitalervices, like inking wer, to the resents. in the early 20s, the cmunity svices districfound th they ha watethat wasontaminad with senic. sthey got grant frm the feral govement tha was abo $1.6 miion toconstruc an arnic treaent plan [isabelolorio eaking snish]

so stayver here androp in e water fill up thisbecause en they ll is, it's moreasy to dp rit here. dre, the amican dre... ontinuesn spanis at' because move ov here. [contues in snish] monacothe commity was ally not iolved inhe proce

ofthe consuction o the aenic trement pla. so,eally, wt they s hpening w a lot o nstructi was goi on, and then tir billskyrocket. th arseni treatmt plant s installein 2010,bout midy though theear. andhen 6 moths late it was ut down becse it watoo cost to opera. olorio saking spish] yoram con: the cllenge in all commities is

that th'rnot able toactuallyun theirwn systems.ou know,hey can't ford, yoknow, toave anperator at woulde there. this one of r laboraries. and is is whe we do rious pes of tsts on bile uni for watetreatmenand desalition, war qualit analis, and on. andhis is imarilyn preparation for always rger sca design syems thatre then eld deployae. this water, t champagn well,e'reooking athe cotrol inrface fothe plan th is runng at panhe.

chris lieman: w're theanoche dinage dirict ofof russe avenue re, los nos, at one othe pilotreatmen est sitefor treang suurface din wat. this rticularroject hses project or the iversity califoia, los geles. nd they're tesng sever procses invoing rever osmosisif you h a eries whe in an ea like this,n the ceral vall, where yohave lot of sma counities at are sead out ov a largerea and u cou put a sll plantike thi a packa plant--ere' a tentialthere fo cost saings--iwould potentiay be a ge change hen: the is aeconomi of sca here. t re systs that y have, t wer the st is. y can thi out allhose comnities a sential being airtual ater disict. herthey are nnected a intern and therefo have th benefitf

beingart of aistrict,ven thougheographilly the're not nnected. snyr: i thi it soun ve promisi. and, ifact, i thk if sma communies are gon have too totreatmen it'gonna ha toe a modelike tha kada: rightow, we wt toake surwe havenough wat for theeople toive here anfor us tgrow. and ght now, we arat capacy becaus ou system older, d we nee to impro that. [solio speakg spanis nartor: accs to cle drinng watern rural califrnia isomplicated, but inemote viages thalie wiin moroco'southwt mountin regio the oppite is

tr. here, ntraditial soluons are ing embred and ging hope communies in ne. khadija ouate spking tive lanage] jamilbargach:ere the verty has bee staggerg n terms water.

peopleere ling in perpetuly endle anxiety. and ma of the men were teing us h they wod go thity and ge water rst to their cldren, tthe eldey, and to t animals [donkebrays] [gruting] [haa tazrou speaki nive langge]

bargh: the wer shorte and the irrularity rainfal have madliveliho here ve difcult forhe houselds. [hicle ho honks] [momed zabo speakin nativlanguage

issa deem speakng frenh] bargach:he impacof clima change jt withinhe 12 yes thate, as anrganizatn, ve been tive in e region is rely stagging. there has been a significant inease in e heat and in the suers. theahara isight on t other se of theountain

d is mong towar this reon verysteadily ounir aar speakg french bagach: fotakes aw all your suals. tn it com ver very slly andracious. i run th organizion that toay has t largest futioning g collecon projt in theorld.

bargachthe fog es throu the n, and th the sma moleles of wer that e insi the fog are ught in thhoneycomb st of nting. d then th gravi, they dcend int gutter, d then we gathethem. [abbar saking frch]

[deem speakg french

[abb speakinfrench]

[indisnct conrsatio [houain soune speing nativlanguage

[abbaspeakingrench]

azroutepeaking nive langge] [sousanspeaking tive lauage]

[derh speaking ench]

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

03/09/20 03/09/20 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> i was at the ceremony when the gunshots started. i rushed toward the door to get the door to get out of the area but suddenly, my foot was hit by a bullet. amy: since last month's peace plan, there have been nearly 80 attacks in afghanistan. the violence could derail the deal that calls for u.s. troops to withdraw over the next 14 months. we will speak with "washington post"