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 thwld, man ve witho clean dnking ter whi at thedge of rocco's saha regin, harvting wat from fohas the pontial toeeply imct a cultu. amera fos ring ccking] hutterlicking]

sherhunter: at was the dr store the rust-cored builng. on the her sid of it w th barber op. the histy of allsworth as know its colone alensworthwhen he tired fr the arm-wanted place wheree could and sete wh his pele, which wasn't too many places available at the time, and he found this piece of land. duri the ti when the were droughtsverywherand thin were b in diffent towns d cies, alleworth thved. ithrived cause th knew ho

o make ithrive. art wit whayou havemake somhing th it annever beatisfied tht's quotatioby george whingtocarver-- denise adara: ooker t huer: nogeorge whington carver.but colol allenorth madthat happen ere beuse this wasurs. this waour histy. this s our tow we did . and wh i sa "we," 'm saking of blacks kadar tulare ke used be the lgest freshter lake wesof the msissippi anback inhe 189. and asarming bame moe prevalentin the aa, theater startedeing divted for at. and really s had a signifant impact on the cmunitythe commity was hriving,ut no counity thris witht qualitwater.

th is what iave to d to get . and thgoodhing is th'vgiven these ps, so it'manageabe for uto get e waterbut'm ab to do ts. kidmay not or thelderly y not, b this isour sysem for ter. [stoveial clks] it's comin ell ringg]

[train whistlblares] hunterin the pt, it wa a bustng littltown, ke i sa. people om all aund came here. i ha that itas chipp away atthe downll of th communi was wat. and i'm here rht now00-plusears ter sti trying to work is townip, thiscommit getting od, affoable, quity wate jessi sner: all ght. so'd ke to srt with the st wel reportummary.. we wereinally ae to comete a te well rently, whh was th main pot of disssn at this rning's meetin and theest wellid indice hat we c expect get goo complit water om this ot here we sted.

ey actuly have o wells. theells arek. they're not very hi-produci wells, t they bo have lels of arnic ithem tha in genel, exceedshe maxim contamint level at the ste sets safe drking wat. there's great dal of sence out there cumentinthe ill effects arsenicn hum healt arsenics definily a canr-causin agent. it'very imptant that ey ave infuence owhat the ulmate proct turnsut to be becse it hato be mething that ty'reappy wit that they're comrtableith, tha th'rconfidenin, and at ty can afrd to ru jon chriensen:he history of ater inthe san aquin valley is reallthe history ofater incaliforn and ithe ameran west. yoknow, agculture es e someing lik80% of t water icaliforn, and it is mad you kno

a multillion-doar indusy possle. it's one the gre paradox ofaliforniand of e centr valley d of the sanoaquin vley, in particur, that the mid of so mu richnes that's created by ter--by owing the ery valable cro--there e pele who d'tave clean dnking war. anda mono: lanaris a sma town about 6 folks, loted abou30 minut down from frno. it'majoritlatino. lot of

foks here ke theiriving working surrounng fies. ok.h. is th, like, ere, like, tre' a clust trail homes? man:es. s... monac is it there? , ok... thestarted tting upomes and settg up their homesn a ay that s not plned by local vernmentaround tm. then anat sompoint, lcal govement d become are of thcommuny but dinot incporate tm into officiatown or officl ci. as a rult, theay that lifora has det with sll communits like lare is tt they ve a sysm where thcommunititself c set up a counity seices dirict to provide certainital serces, ke drinng waterto th residen. in the ely 2000 the comnity serces ditrict fod that they had water that was contaminated th senic. sthey got grant from thfederal vernmenthat was aut $1.6 llion constrt anarsec treaent plan sabel sorio spking spash]

so stayver he d drop ithe wateto fill up th. becauswhen thefill this, i's mo easy torop righhere. dreamthe ameran dream. [ctinues ispanish] th'secause iove ov here. [contues in snish] monacothe commity was ally not iolved inhe proce

of the nstructi of thersenic tatment plant. , reall what they saw happeni was a l of construcon wasoing on, and en theirills skyroeted. the arnic trtment plt was inalled in010, abo midway thrgh the yr. and tn 6 months ter, it s shut dn becauset was tocostly t orate [solor speakinspanish] yoram con: the cllenge in all commities is

thathey're noable actual run the own system you kno they c't afrd, you ow, to he an orator th would bthere. this one of r laboraries. and th is where weo variou types ofests omobile uts for war treatmt and desalition, war qualy analysisand so o and thiis imarilyn preparion for alwaylarger sle desigof systemthat arehen fiel deployabl this isater, no ampagne. wel, we're loong at th cotrol terface for the plant that is nning atanoche.

chris lieman: w're he panoc drainagdistrict off of rsell avee here, los bas, ne of thpilot trtment test tes for eating bsurfacerain waer. this partular proct house a prect forhe univsity califoia, los geles. and th're tting seral presses volving revse osmos. if youad a sers where an areaike thi in thcentravalley whe you ha lots o small communits that apread ouover a lge area d you could put amall pla like his, a pkage pla--there's a tentialthere fo co savin--it wod poteially a game anger. coen: theris n economes of sca here. t more syems thatou have,he wer the st is. y can think abut all tse commuties as esstially bng a virtu ater disict. herthey are coected a inteet and trefore he thatenefit o

beingart of aistrict,ven thou geograpcally th'r noconnecte nyder: ihink it unds very prosing. d, in fa, i ink if sll comnities are gon have too treatmt, it's gonna ve be a mol like tt. dara: rht now, want make sue we ha enough wateror the pple to le here d for uso grow. and ght no we e at capity becae our sysm is old, and weeed to irove tha [sorio speing spanh] nartor: accs to cle drking wat in rura califrnia isomplicat, but remote llages tt lie withinmorocc's sthwest ountainegion, t oppositis

true. re, nontditional solutis are beg embrac and giving hope toommunies in ne. [khadijghouate eaking nativeanguage] mila baach: herthe poverty s beentaggerin n terms water.

peopleere ling in rpetual endss anxie. d many of e women re telling how thewould go trsty andive watefirst the childre to the derly, and tohe anima. [dkey bray [grunng] hazna taoute speing nativlanguage

baach: theater shortage an th irregulity of rnfall have me liveliod here ry difficu for theousehold [vehicle hornonks] ohamed bour speing nate langua]

[assa derhem saking ench] baach: thempact oflimate chan just wiin the 1years at we, aan organation, ha been acve in e region is rely stagging. there habeen signifint inease in e heat a in the mmers. t sahara isight on the oer side the mouain

ands movingowards ts regionery stdily. [moun abbar saking french] barga: fog kes awayll yr visual then itomes very, vy slowly andracious. i run is organation th tod has theargest nctioninfog colltion project the wor.

barch: the fog goeshrough t net, anthen themall moleculeof waterhat are inde the f arcaught ithe honeomb sort f nting. d then th avity, ey desce into gutter, d then we gathethem. [abb speakinench]

[rhem speing fren]

[abb speaking french

[indistit convesation] [houssn soune saking nate langua]

[abbaspeakingrench]

azrou speakin nive langge] ousane eaking naive langge]

[rhempeaking ench] s

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

national priorities. [applause] narrat: cuba is an achronism. ancient vehicles, crumbling infrastructure, and limited opportunities. but despit60 years of economic sations byhe unitestates, the socialist country survives. there's free education and a free world-class medical system. in 1958, fidel castro overthrew the military junto ruling cuba. newscaster: havana. january 1, 1959. [woman singing in spanish]