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 prodtion inthe word, many ve witho clean dnking war whileat the ee of mocco's saha region, harvting wat from fohas the pontial toeeply imct culture amera fos ring ccking] hutter ccking]

sheri nter: th was the dr store-- the ruscolored ilding. on the her sid of it w th barber op. the histy of allsworth as inow it icolonel alensworthwhen he tired fr the arm-wanted place whe he coulgo and stle wh his pele, hich wa't tomany plas avaible at theime, d he fou this pie of lan duri the ti when there were droughtsverywherand thin were badn differt towns an cities, nsworth rived. ithrived cause th knew ho

o make ithrive. art wit whayou havemake somhing wi it and ver be sisfied. tht's quotatioby george whington rver-- denise adara: ooker t huer: no. orge wasngton carver.but colol allenswth madthat happen he beuse th was os. is was r histor this wa our town.e did itand when sa "we," 'm saking of blacks. kadara:ulare la used toe the larstreshwatelake west the misssippi, and ck in t 1890s. and farmingecame moe pralent the are th water start being derted for th. and iteally s had significt impact on the cmunity. e communy was tiving, b no commity thrivewithouquality ter.

th is what iave to d to get . and thgoodhing is th'vgiven these ps, so 's nageablfor us get th water, t i'm able tdo thi kids manot be r the elrly may t, but ts is r syst for war. tove dl clic] it's comin [bl ringin

rain whistle ares] hunterin the pt, it wa a bustng littltown, ke i sa. eople fr all arod came herei hate tt it washipped ay at. the wnfall othis comnity wasater. ani'm here rht now00-plusears ter sti trying to worat thisownshipthis counity, tting go, affordle, qualitwater. ssi snyd: all rit. so i'd ke to srt with the st wel reportummary.. e were fally ablto comple a testell recely, whicwas th main pot of disssioat this rning's meetin and theest wellid indice that wean expecto get gd compant watefrom thispot where wtested. theactuallyave two lls.

the wls are o they're not ry highroducingells, bu ey bothave leve of arsec in em that,n genera ceeds t maximumontamina vel th the sta sets as afe drinng waterthere's great dal of sence out there cumentinthe ill fects ofrsenic o hum healt arsenics definite a cancecausing agen it's very important that they have influence on what the ultimate project turns out to be cause it has to be something th they're happyith, tha thy'reomfortle with,hat they're coident inand that they caafford trun. n christsen: t histo of wer in e san jouin vaey is reallthe history ofater in cafornia d in thamericanest. u know, riculturdoes ussomeing lik80% of theater in liforniaand it is mad you kno

a multillion-doar indusy possib. i's onof the gat parades ofaliforniand of th centralalley anof the sanoaquin vley, in particur, that the mid of so muchichnesthat's created bwater--bgrowing ese ery valable cro--there e peop who do't he clan drinkg water. amda monac lanare a small town ofbout 600olks, loted abt 30 mines down from frno. it's majory latinoa lot of

foks here ke theiriving working surrounng field ok.h. is th, like, ere, like, tre' a clust of traer hom? man:es. yes. monaco:s it the? oh, ok. ty startesetting homes and seing up tir homesn a w that wanot pland by local gornments ound the hen and some int, lol govement didecome aware of the mmunitbut did t incporate tm into anfficial wn or anfficl city. as result,he way tt california s dealt th small mmunitielike lane is tha they ha a systewhere the mmunity self canet up a commity serves distct to ovideertainital serces, ke drinng waterto th residen. in the ely 2000s,he commuty servis disict founthat they had water that was contaminated th arnic. so ey got arant from thfederal vernmenthat was abo $1.6 llion toconstruc an senic treatment ant. sabel sorio spking spash]

stay or here androp in e water fill thisbecause en they ll is, it's moreasy to dp righhere. dreamthe ameran dream. [connues in anish] tha's bause i me overere. [contins in spash] monaco: e communy was rely not invved in t process

the cotructionf the aenic trement pnt. so,eally,hat th saw hpeningas a lotf nstructi was gng on, and th their bls skyrocked. e arsec treaent planwas instled in 20, aboutidway throu the yea and the6 nths lar, it washut dow causet was tocostly t operate [sorio speing spanish] yom cohen:he challge in sml communies is

that ey're t able to actuly run tir own system you kno they c't afrd, you ow, to he an orator th would bthere. thiis one oour labotories. and th is where do varis types ofests omobile uts for watetreatmenand desalition, war qualit analysisand so o and thiis prmarily ipreparatn for alwaylarger sle desigof systems at are tn field deployabl this isater, no ampagne. well, we're looki at the conol inteace r thplant at is ruing at poche.

ris linnan: we're in t panocherainage strict f of rusll avenuhere, s banos, one of e pilot eatment test tes fotreati suurface din wat. this partular proct house a prect forhe univsity ofcaliforn, los anles. and th're tting several presses inlving revse osmos. if you had a sies ere in aarea lik this,n the ceral vaey, where yohave lot of sma mmunitiethat are sprea out over large aa and yo cou p a smalllant lik ts, a pkage pla--there's a poential ere for costsavings-it woul potentially be game chger. coh: there aeconomi of scale he. the re systs that y have, t lowethe costs. you c think abo all tho communies as essenally bei a virtual wer distrt. here ey are coected viintern and trefore he that befit of

beingart of aistrict,ven thougheographilly the're not nnected. snyr: i thi it soun ve promising. d, in fa, i thk if sma communies re gonnaave to g treatmt, it's gonna ve toe a mol like tt. kaara: rig now, weant to me sure e have eugh ter forhe peoplto live here d for uso grow. and rit now, we arat capacy becaus our sysm is old, and weeed to irove tha [solio speakg spanis narrar: accesto clean drinng watern rural califrnia isomplicat, but inemote viages thalie wiin moroco'southwt mouain regn, the oosite is

true. re, nontditional solutis are beg embrac and givi hope commuties n need. [khadijghouate eaking native lguage] mila baach: herthe verty s beentaggerin n terms water.

peopleere ling in rpetual endle anxiety d ma of the men were telling how thewould go thity and ge watefirst to the childre to the derly, and to t animals [dony brays] [gruntig] [zna tazrte speakng native nguage]

bargh: the wer shoage and th irregulity of rnfall have me liveliod here ry difficu for theousehold vehicle horn hks] [mhamed zaur speakg naive langge]

[assa derhem speakng frenh] baach: thempact oflimate chan just wiin the 1years at we, aan organation, haveeen acti in thregion is real staggerg. there habeen signifint incrse in thheat andn the mmers. t sahara isight on the oer side the mouain

ands movingowards ts regionery stdily. ounirbbar speing french] barga: fog tas away a youvisuals.hen itomes ry, verslowly and gciously i run is organation th tod has theargest futioning g collecon project the wor.

barga: the g goeshrough t net, anthen themall moleculeof waterhat are insi t fog are ught in e honeycb sort f netng. anthen wi avity, ey desce into a tter, anthen gather em. [abbarpeaking ench]

[rhem speing fren]

[abb speakinfrench]

[indistit convesation] [houssn sousane speing nativlanguage

[abbaspeakingrench]

[tzroutepeaking nate langua] ousane eaking naive langge]

[rhempeaking ench]

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

i spend a lot of time in montreal. it really is, together with copenhagen and barcelona, one of my favourite places on the planet, a home away from home. but i still have a problem putting my finger on what makes this city so great. through the centuries, montreal has found itself at a global crossroads where nations, cultures and languages have met, or were fiercely defended. now, it's as though montreal is a city that spends a lot of time wondering about itself. i wouldn't call it an identity crisis, more of an identimélange. this city faces real urban challenges. the people here will tell you that they have the worst potholes on the planet.