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 ter whi at thedge of mocco's saha region, harvting wat from fohas the pontial toeeply imct a cultu. amera fos ring ccking] hutterlicking]

sherhunter: at was the dr store-- the rt-colorebuilding 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, which wasn't too many places available at the time, and he found this piece of land. dung the me when ere were droughtsverywherand thin were badn differt towns an ties, alnsworth rived. 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 he because this was os. is was r histor this wa our town.e did itand when sa "we," 'm saking of blacks kadar tulare ke used be the larst freshwatelake west the misssippi, and ba in the 1890s. and farmingecame moe prevalentin the aa, th water staed beingiverted fothat. anit reallhas had a signifant impact o the cmunity. e communy was hriving,ut no counity thris witht qualitwater.

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

rain whistle ares] hunter: the pas it was a buling lite town, ke i sa. eople fr all arod came herei hate tt it washipped way at. e downfa of this mmunityas waterand i'm re rightow 100-ps year laer stillrying work at this townip, thiscommunit getting od, affoable, qualitwater. jessi sner: all ght. so'd ke to srt with the te well rert summa... we we finallyble to cplete a testell recely, whicwas th main pot of disssioat ts morni's meing. andhe test ll did iicate 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 han heah. arsen is definite a cancecausing agent. it'very imptant that ey ave infuence owhat the ultite proje turns o to be becauset has be someing 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 vaey iseally thhisty of wat in liforn and in e americ west. you knowagriculte does e someing lik80% of t water icaliforn, and it is mad you kno

a multillion-doar indusy possle. it's one the gre paradox califora and of e centr valley d of the sanoaquin vley, in particur, that the mid of so muchichnesthat's created by ter--by owing the ery valable cro--there e ople whoon' have clean dnking war. 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, likewhere, like, tre' a clust ofrail homes? man:es. ye.. monaco:s ithere? ohok... they stted settg up hom ansetting their hes in 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 an officia cityas a rest, the w 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. inhe early 2000s,he commuty servis distrt found at they had water that was contaminated th senic. sthey got grant from thfederal vernmenthat was aut $1.6 llion constrt an arsenic eatmenplant. sabel sorio spking spash]

stayver he d drop ithe wateto fill up th. becauswhen thefill this, i's mo easy torop righhere. dreamthe ameran dream. [connues in anish] th'secause iove ov here. [contues in snish] monaco: e communy was rely not invved in t process

the cotructionf the aenic trement pnt. so reall what th saw appeningas a lotf construcon wasoing on,nd th their bls skyrocket. th arseni treatmt plant s inalled in010, abo midway throu the yea and the6 months ter, it s shut dn becauset was tocostly t operate [solio speakg spanish] yom cohen:he challge in sml communies is

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 looki at the conol inteace for thplant that is nning atanoche.

ris linnan: we're in theanoche dinage strict off ofussell anue here los bas, at o of the lot treaent tt sis for trting bsurfacerain waer. this partular proct house a prect forhe univsity ofcalifoia, los geles. and ty'reesting seral presses volving rever osmosisif youad a eries ere in aarea like thi in thcentral valley, wheryou haveots ofmall communits that a sead out er a lar area anyou uld put a sll plantike ts, a pacge plantthere's a pottial the for cost vings-t would potentlly be game chger. coen: theris n economes of sca here. t more syems thatou have,he wer the st is. y can think abo all tse commuties as essenally bei a virtual ater disict. herthey are coected a inteet and trefore he that befit of

beingart of aistrict,ven thou geograpcally th'r noconnecte sder: i tnk it sods veryromisingand, in ct, i thk if sma communies are gon have too treatmt, it's gonna ve be a mol like tt. kaara: rig now, weant toake surwe havenough water f the peoe to liv here anfor us tgrow. and ght no we e at capity becae our sysm is old, and weeed to irove tha [sorio speing spanh] narrar: accesto clean drking wat in rura caiforniais complated, bu remote llages tt lie within rocco's souhwest mntain rion, t oppositis

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

people we livi in perpetuly endle anxiety d ma of the men were telling how thewould go trsty andive watefirst the childre to the derly, and tohe anima. [dony brays] [gruntig] [zna tazrte speakng nativlanguage

baach: theater shoage and th irregulity of rnfall have me liveliod here ry difficu for theousehold [hicle hornonks] [mhamed zaur speakg nativlanguage

[aissdeem speakng frenh] baach: thempact oflimate chan just wiin the 1years at we, aan organation, ha been acve in e region is rely stagging. there habeen a signifcant incrse in thheat andn the mmers. t sahara isight on the oer side the mouain

ands movingowards ts regionery stdily. [moun abbar saking french] barga: fog tas away a yr visual then itomes ry, verslowly andracious. i run is organation th tod has theargest futioning g collecon project the wor.

barga: the g goes tough t net, anthen themall moleculeof waterhat are inde t fog arcaught ithe honeomb sort f netng. anthen wi avity, ey descendnto gutter, d then we gathethem. [abb speakinfrench]

[rhem speing fren]

[abb 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. xññññññññ#■w 8ñ■

09/20/21 09/20/21 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> they put us under a bridge where we slept. we were taken to a jail in texas. i spent five does -- days in jail. amy: the u.s. has begun deporting haitian asylum seekers from a makeshift camp of 00