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 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 cckin [shuer clicking]

sherhunter: at was the ug 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 whe he coulgo and stle wh his pele, which wasn't too many places available at the time, and he found this piece of land. ring thtime whethere we droughtsverywherand thin were b in diffent towns d cies, alleworth thved.

it thrid becausthey knehow 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 he because this wasurs. this waour histy. this s our town.e did itand when sa "we," 'm saking of blacks kadar tulare ke used be the lgest freshter lake wesof the msissippi and back inhe 189. and as fming bece moe prevalentin the aa, theater startedeing divted for at. and really s had a signifant impact on theommunitythe commity was hriving,ut no counity

thris witht qualitwater. th is what have too to t it. anthe go thing i ey'e given theseots, so it's managele fors to get the wat, but'm ab to do ts. ks may nobe or thelderly y not, b this isour sysem for ter. rt [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 hate that was chied way at. e downll of th communi was wat. and i'm re rightow 100-ps year ter sti trying to worat this toship, th communy, 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 e main int of dcussn at this rning's meetin and theest wellid indice that can expt to getood coliant war from ts spot wheree tested

theactuallyave two lls. theells arek. they're not very hi-produci wells, t they bo have lels of arnic ithem tha in genel, exceedshe maxim contamint lel 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's very important that they have influence on what the ultimate project turns out to be because it has to be something at they're hap with, tt ey' comfoable wit that they're coident inand that they n affordo run. jon chriensen:he hisry of ater inthe san aquin valley is reay the hiory water incaliforn an in the erican wt. u know, riculturdoes e someing lik80% of t water icaliforn, and it

is mad you kno a multillion-doar indusy possle. i's onof the gat parades of cifornia d of e centr valley d of the sanoaquin vley, in particur, that the mid of so mu richnes that's created bwater--bgrowing ese ery valable cro--there e pele who d'tave clan driing wate amda monac lanare a small town about 6 folks, loted abou30 minut down from frno. it'majoritlatino. lot of

lks hermake the living working surrounng field ok.h. is th, likewhere, like, tre' a clust of trail homes? ma yes. s... monac is it there? , ok... ty startesetting homes and settg up the homes i 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 city. as result,he way tt caifora has det with sll mmunitielike lane is tha they ve a sysm where thcommunititself c set up a counity seices dirict to provide certainital serces, ke drinng waterto th residen. inhe early 2000s,he commuty servis disict founthat they had water that was contaminated th senic. sthey got grant from thfederal vernmenthat was aut $1.6 llion to consuct anarsec treatmt plant. sabel sorio spking spash]

stayver he d drop ithe wateto fill up th. becauswhen thefill this, i's mo easy torop righhe. dreamthe ameran dream. [ctinues ispanish] th'secause iove ov here. [contues in snish] monaco: e communy was rely not iolved inhe proce

of the nstructi of thersenic tatment plant. so reall what they saw happeni was a l of constrtion wasoing on, and then the bills 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 operate [solorio speaking spanish] yoram con: the cllenge

insmall counities that ey'rnot able to tually r their o 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 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 lking at e ntrol 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 sites for eating bsurfacerain waer. this partular proct house a prect forhe univsity califoia, los geles. and th're tting seral presses volving rever osmosisif y had 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 ts, a pacge plantthere's a poential ere for costsavings-it woul poteiallbe a gamchanger. coen: theris n economes of scaleere. the more syems thatou have,he lor the co is. youan think abut all tse commuties as esentiallyeing a vtu ater disict. herthey are coected a inteet and trefore he that befit of

beingart of aistrict,ven thou geograpcally th'r noconnecte nyder: ihink it unds very prosing. d, in fa, think ifmall 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] narator: aess to can drinng watern rural caiforniais complated, bu remote villageshat lie withinmorocc's sthwest

ountainegion, t oppositis true. re, nontditional solutis are beg embrac and giving hope toommunies in ed. [khadijghouate eaking nativeanguage] jamila rgach: he the poverty s beentaggerin n terms water.

people we livi in perpetuly endss anxie. d many of e women re telling how thewould go trsty andive watefirst the childre to the derly, and tohe anima. [dony brays] [grunng] [hazna zroute saking nativlanguage

baach: theater shoage and th irregulity of rnfall have me liveliod here ry difficu for theousehold vehicle ho honks] ohamed bour speing nate langua]

[assa derhempeakingfrench] baach: thempact oflimate chan just wiin the 1years at we, aan organation, ha been acve in the regi is rely stagging. there habeen a signifcant 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 speakinfrench]

derhem saking frch]

[aar speakg french

[indistit convesation] [houssn soune saking nate langua]

[abbaspeakingrench]

azrou speakin nive langge] ousane eaking naive langge]

[rhempeaking ench]

announcer: "earth focus" is made possible in part by the orange county community foundation and the farvue foundation. ■÷=÷=÷pñpñpñpññ■ m

berlin. u.s. health officials approve a controversial new drug for alzheimer's disease. the fit treatment to target the condition's underlying cause rather than symptoms. also on the program, judges in the netherlands here evidence against four men accused of bringing down malaysia airlines flight mh 17. seven years after the civilian passenger plane was shot out o