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 li withoutlean driing war whileat the ee of mocco's saha regio harvesng waterrom fog s the pontial toeeply imct culture amera fos ring ccking] hutter clicking]

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 wheree could and sete wh his pele, whichasn'too manylaces availae at theime, d he fou this pie of lan duringthe timehen therwere droughtsverywherand thin were badn differt towns an cies, allensrth thrived. 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 made at happen herbeuse th was os. is was r histor this wa our town.e did itand when saywe," i'm speing of blacks. kadara:ulare la used toe e large freshwatelake west the misssippi, and ba in the 1890s. d farmingecame moe prevalentin the aa, the wat srted bei diverte r that. d it reay has ha a gnificanimpact on the cmunity. e communy was tiving, b no commity thrivewithouquality ter.

th is what iave to d to get . and thgoodhing is the've ven ushese pot so 's nageablfor us get th water, t i'm ableo do this. kids y not be or the derly manot, buthis is r syst for war. tove dl clic] it's comin [bl ringin

rain whistle ares] hunter: in t past, iwas a bustli little wn, lie i said peoe from a around me he. i hate tt it washipped ay at. the wnfall othis comunity w water. d i' here rig now 100lus yeas latertill tryg toork at thisownshipthis counity, tting go, affordle, quality ter. ssi snyd: all rit. so i'd lie to sta with the te welreport smary... e were fally ablto comple a test wl recent, which s theain poinof discuioat this rning's meetin and theest wellid indice tt we canxpect toet good complianwater fr this sp wre we teed. ey actuly have o wells.

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 waterthe' great dal of sence out there cumentinthe ill fects ofrsenic o hum health.rsenic i definite a cancecausing agent. it'very impta that th ave infuence on at the ultite proje turns o to be becse it hato be sothing that th're hpy with,hat they're comrtable wh, tha th'rconfidenin, and at thecan affo to run. n christsen: t histo of wer in e san jouin vaey iseally thhisty of wat in cafornia and in e americ west. you knowagriculte does ussomeing lik80% of theater in liforniaand it is mad you kno a multillion-doar indusy

possib. i's onof the gat parades of cifornia d of th centralalley anof the sanoaquin vley, in particur, that the mid of so muchichnesthat's created by ter--by owing the ery valable cro--there e peopleho don't hav ean driing wate amda monac lanare a small town ofbout 600olks, locad about minutes down from frno. it'majoritlatino. lot of fol here ma their ling

working surrounng field ok. o is that, like, ere, like, tre' a clust ofrailer hes? man:es. ye.. monaco:s it tre? oh, ... they arted seing up hes ansettinup theiromes in a w that wanot pland by local gornments ound the hen and some int, lol govement didecome awe of the mmunitbut did t incporate tm into anfficial wn or anfficia ty. as aesult, t way tha califora has det with sll 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. inhe ear 2000 the comnity serces ditrict fod that ty had watethat wasontaminated th arnic. so ey got arant om the deral gornment tt was abo $1.6 miion toconstruc an arsenic eatmenplant. sabel sorio spking spash]

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

the arsic treatnt pla. so,eally,hat th saw appeningas a lotf nstructi was gng on, and th their bls skyrocked. th arseni treatmt plant s instled in 20, aboutidway throu the yea and the6 nths lar, it washut dow causet was tocostly t operate. [solorio speaking spanish] yom cohen:he challge in smalcommunits is

that th'e not ab to tually r their o systems.ou know,hey can't afrd, you ow, to he an orator th would bthere. this isne of oulaboratoes. and thiss where weo variou tys of tes on mole units 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 the ant at is ruing at poche.

ris linnan: we're in t panocherainage strict f of rusll avenuhere, los bano at onef the pit treatmt tt sitefor trting bsurfacerain waer. this partular proct house a prect forhe univsity ofcaliforn, los anles. and th're tting seral procses inlving revse osmos. if y had a sies whe in an ea like this,n the ntral lley, where u have ls of sll mmunitiethat are sead out er a lar area anyou cold put a sma plant le thi a packa plant--ere' a pottial the for cost vings-t would potentlly be game chger. coh: there aeconomi scaleere. the re systs that y have, t lor the co is. youan think about all tse commuties as essenally bei a virtual wer distrt. here ey are coected viintern and trefore he that befit of being pt of a dtrict, en

thougheographilly the're not nnected. snyr: i thi it soun ve promisingand, in ct, 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 water f the peoe to liv here anfor us tgrow. and rit now, we arat capacy becaus our sysm is old, and weeed to irove tha [solio speakg spanis nartor: accs to cle drinki water irural calornia compliced, but remote llages tt lie thin mocco's soutest mouain regn, the oosite is

true. re, nontditional solutis are beg embrac and giving hope toommuties in need [khadijghouate eaking native lguage] mila baach: herthe verty ha been sggering iterms ofater.

people we livi in rpetual endle anxiety d manyf the won were telling how thewould go thity and ge watefirst to the childre to the derly, and to t animals [donkebrays] runtin [zna tazrte speakng native nguage]

bargh: the wer shorte and th irregulity of rnfall have me liveliod here ry difficu for theousehold [hicle horn hks] [mhamed zaur speakg nativlanguage

[aissdeem 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] bargachfog takeaway a youvisuals.hen itomes ry, verslowly and gciously i run is organation th tod has theargest futioning g collecon project the wor.

barga: the fog goes tough theet, and en the sll moleculeof waterhat are insi theog are ught in e honeycb sort f netng. anthen wi avity, ey desce into a tter, anthen gather em. [abbarpeaking ench]

[derh speakinfrench]

[abb speakinfrench]

[indistit convesation] [houssn sousane speing nativlanguage

[abbaspeakingrench]

[tzroutepeaking nate langua] ousane eaking nate langua]

[rhem saking frch]

announcer: "earth focus" is made possible in part by the orange county community foundation and the farvue foundation. @aaa qqqwrmuluai>úñ

woman: we really try to focus in on deep traditions. those foods and those seeds and those animals, those relations that really ground culture. given we've been moved off of so many of our traditional lands, one of our values is to make natural areas accessible and nati again. man: we have certain native ways of taking care of the land and we want to exhibit those practices here so people will come here and they'll see this lush paradis woman: we have a tendency in the west to commodify something, to view it as a thing. even seeds. what the native people know is that it's not just a thing, and what na p