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 regin, harvting wat from fohas the pontial toeeply imct a cultu. amera fos ring ccking] hutter clicking]

sherhunter: at was the dr store theust-colod buildi. 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 wn't o many pces ailable the tim and heound thipiece ofand. duri the ti when the were droughtsverywherand thin were badn differt towns an cities, lenswortthrived. 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 beuse th was os. is was r histor this wa our tow we did . and wh i sa "we," 'm saking of blacks kadar tulare ke used be theargest fshwater ke west ofhe missiippi, and ba in the 1890s. anas farmi became more evlent inhe area, the wertarted bng diverd for th. and iteally hahad significt impact on the cmunity. e communy was tiving, b no commity thris witht qualitwater.

th is what iave to d to get . and thod things th'vgiven theseots, so it's managele fors to get e waterbut'm ab to do ts. kidmay not or e elderlmay not,ut this our stem fowater. [stoveial clks] it's comin ell ringg]

rain whistle ares] huer: inhe past,t was a buling lite town, lie i said peoe from a around me herei hate tt it washipped ay at. the downfa of this communi was wat. and i'm here rig now00-plusears ter sti trying to worat is townip, thiscommunit getting od, affoable, ality war. jessi sner: all ght. so'd ke to srt with the st well port sumry... we we finallyble to cplete a testell recely, whicwas 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 uman hlth. arsic is definily a canr-causin agent. 's ve important thathey have iluence on what t ulmate proct turnsut to be beause it s to be mething that ty'reappy wit that they're comrtableith, tha th'rconfidenin, and at ty can afrd to ru jon chriensen:he hisry of ater inthe san aquin valley is reallthe history ofater in liforn and ithe ameran west. yoknow, agculture es e someing lik80% of t water icaliforn, and it is mad you kno

a multillion-doar indusy possib. it's one the gre paradox of cifornia d 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 pele who d'tave clean dnking war. amda monac lanare a small town about 6 folks, loted abou30 minut dow41 from esno. i's mority lano. a loof

foks here ke theiriving workinin surroding fies. ok.h. is th, like, ere, like, tre' a clust trailer homes man:es. s... monac is ithere? ohok... ty startesetting homes d 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 an officia ci. as a rult, theay that caifornihas dealwith sma 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 ear 2000s,he commuty servis distrt found at they ha water th was conminated th senic. sthey got grant from thfederal vernmenthat was aut $1.6 llion constrt an arsenitreatmt plant. sabel sorio spking spash]

stayver he d drop ithe wateto fill up th. becauswhen thefill this, i's mo easy torop right re dream, e americ dream.. [ctinues ispanish] 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 they saw appeningas a lotf constrtion wasoing on, and en theirills skyrocked. e arsec treaent planwas inalled in010, abo midway thrgh the yr. and tn 6 months ter, it s shut dn becauset was tocostly t operate [solorio speakg spanish] yoram con: the cllenge insmall counities

that th'e not ab to acally runheir 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 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 cotrol inrface r thplant that is nning atanoche.

ris linnan: we're in theanoche dinage strict off ofussell anue here los banos, at one of thpilot trtment test tes for eating bsurfacerain waer. this partular proct house a prect forhe univsity ofcalifoia, los geles. and ty'reesting seral presses volving revse osmos. if youad a series where an areaike thi in thcentral valley, wheryou haveots ofmall communits that a sead ouover a lge area d you could put a sll plantike ts, a pacge plantthere's a poential ere for costsavings-it woul poteially a game anger. coen: theris n economes of sca here. t more syems thatou have,he wer the st is. y can think about all tse commuties as essenally bei a virtu wer distrt. here ey are coected a inteet and trefore he that befit of

beingart of aistrict,ven thou geograpcally th'r noconnecte sder: i tnk it sods very pmising. d, in fa, i ink if sll commuties are gon have too treatmt, it's gonna ve be a mol like tt. dara: rht now, want toake surwe havenough 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 drinng watern rural caiforniais complated, bu inemote llages tt lie withinmorocc's sthwest ountainegion, t oppositis

true. re, nontditional solutis are beg embrac and ving he to cmunities ineed. [khadijghouate eaking nativeanguage] mila baach: herthe poverty s beentaggerin iterms ofater.

ople wer livingn perpetuly endle anxiety d many of thwomen we 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 horn hks] [momed zabo speakin nate langua]

[aia derhempeakingfrench] 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 the net, d then t small moleculeof waterhat are indehe fog arcaught ithe honeomb sort f nting. d then th avity, ey descend into gutter, d then we gathethem. [abb speakinfrench]

[derh speakinfrench]

[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■wwññ■■ 8

♪ >> this is dw news live from berlin. tonight, the u.s. says it will lift covid-19 travel bans. getting in november, for an air travelers will be allowed to enter the country, provided they are fully vaccinated. we will get the latest from washington. also, a humanitarian crisis in texas. thousands of migrants, many from haiti, living under a bridge. u.s. officials have begun mas