-[waves crashing]
-[deliberative music plays]
[Male Speaker] There is no
close substitute for water.
[Female Speaker] It's the
most precious resource we have.
[Female Speaker] We are
not treating it as a crisis
when we should be
treating it as a crisis.
Imagine if tomorrow,
we cured cancer,
and in a hundred years,
there were still a million
kids dying of cancer.
It would be unthinkable,
but that's the situation we
find ourselves in with water.
[intense music plays]
The government has failed
in telling the
population the truth
about the situation
that we are facing.
[intense music plays]
[Narrator] About
7.7 billion people
have inherited the Earth.
Almost two billion of us
are struggling to survive
without clean drinking water.
The water crisis
isn't imminent.
It isn't looming.
[intense music plays]
It's here... now.
The UN estimated that by 2025,
1.8 billion people will be
living in water stress regions.
People are not gonna be
starving and dying instantly.
They're gonna be moving.
They won't have the resources
to live where they're at.
-[water trickling]
-[deliberative music plays]
[Narrator] Contrary
to popular thought,
this crisis isn't just a
developing world problem.
It is already beginning to
impact everyone everywhere.
Our changing climate
is less forgiving,
keeping more water for itself.
Pollution is corrupting
our supplies.
Infrastructures
are failing faster
than they can be repaired.
And everyday, there are
more people in the world
all thirsting for water.
More often than not,
a water crisis isn't
an act of nature.
It's an act of humankind.
By not planning,
by not using the
right technologies,
and by not acting soon enough,
we set ourselves up to fail.
[Narrator] It's a
truly daunting crisis,
but what if the solutions
were already at hand?
Right now all around the globe,
an army of visionaries
and innovators
is working to reimagine
and reinvent water systems
to generate, supply,
and clean the water
we all depend on
for our very lives.
The water challenges
facing the world
really fall into
three categories.
First is the scarcity of water.
Second is building
resilient infrastructure
against climate change.
And third is doing all that
in a way that's
affordable for society.
The problem with
this crisis is
the water that's drinkable
is gonna start disappearing
and the water
that's not drinkable
is gonna start
appearing everywhere.
There are solutions.
It's just a matter of bringing
them to bear on the problem
and we can fix it.
We are running
against the clock
in terms of solving
these issues.
In a sense, it breaks my heart
that we have the
solutions, right?
And then we can't get
them out fast enough.
The demand for water to
sustain not only the population
but the lifestyle that we have
has grown just tremendously,
but we're still
trying to do things
the way we've done
them in the past.
[ragtime music plays]
Back around the
turn of the century,
really everybody was responsible
for their own sewage.
They were responsible
for their own water.
They drilled a well, dug a well,
or they got water
out of a creek.
And then they used a pit latrine
or a sewage lagoon
behind the house.
Of course, there were public
health issues with that.
People were getting sick,
and so the governments
around the world
kinda stepped in and said
that this is an intrinsic
government function.
We need to provide
for the safety
and welfare of the community,
and money's really no object.
So they ended up
with these incredibly
expensive sewer systems
where there's a pipe
to everybody's house.
There's a water pipe
to everybody's house,
there's a sewer pipe
to everybody's house.
Incredibly complex
networks of systems
that get old and all
have to be replaced.
And huge expense
associated with it,
but it provided a
safe environment.
It dealt with the public health
issues associated with that.
[ragtime music plays]
[Narrator ] Attempting to
engineer our way our of trouble
is deepening the problem.
As we throw more
and more resources
at outmoded infrastructure,
the challenge is to let go of
an older inefficient system
and start to open our minds
to new ways of managing water.
Nothing focuses the
mind like a crisis.
So when Flint, Michigan
faced a shocking crisis
of lead contamination
in its drinking water,
activists not only
demanded change,
but actively sought creative
solutions to the problem.
One such creatively
focused mind
belongs to rapper, actor,
and entrepreneur Jaden Smith.
My motivation around water
started when I was
about 11 years old.
And it came from me learning
about the environment
from my teachers in school.
It got to the point
where I really wanted
to make an active change
and I wanted to do something
that could make a
difference in the world.
I always wanted to
go above and beyond
and just go across the world
and make an impact, and
make a change, you know?
I want to put a filtration
system in Africa.
I want to put a filtration
system in India.
As I started to
evolve these ideas,
I started to realize that we
have problems so close to home.
We have water sanitation issues
that are right here
in our backyard
that need to be addressed.
And seeing the effect
that this crisis has had on
everyone in Flint, Michigan.
When you see the kids there
and when you see
the elderly people,
that still they
can't use the water
that's coming out of the pipes,
it's heart wrenching.
We wanted to give
back to that community
and purify the water for people
who don't have access
for clean water.
That is why we did The
Water Box in Flint.
[upbeat rock music plays]
What it does is it filters water
and it delivers 10 gallons of
clean water every 60 seconds.
It's specifically made
to filter out the lead
and we have people on site
that are testing the
water every single day.
The entire plan and the goal
to make it work here first
and then to take it
places across the world
that are having the same
issues and say okay,
well maybe this is not a
lead problem over here,
so we can change the
configuration of the machine.
The goal is to have it
wherever it would be necessary
and to modify it for
that specific places
so that it wold work efficiently
just as it does in Flint.
Water is viewed
as a global issue
because it affects
everybody on the planet,
but really at it's heart,
it's a local issue,
because we have to deal
with it city by city,
town by town.
So what we see is that
people who are really
at the coalface
who are struggling with drought
or deteriorating water quality,
those are the
people on the edges
and on the fringes who
are really innovating.
And that's where
the future lies.
[Narrator] One innovator on
one such fringe is Beth Koiji
who had to think outside the
box when her well ran dry.
When I was doing
my undergraduate,
I think I was tired
of getting on and off
waterborne diseases.
So I started making my own
water filter in my dorm,
that heal or remove
all bacterias.
I started going to
community with it
showing people how to make a
simple filter in your house
because actually filters
are not that cheap in Kenya.
And in 2016,
Kenya was facing a huge drought
and we felt that people now
didn't see filters as a solution
because they actually don't
have enough water to filter.
The only choice here is to
fetch water from the river.
Children are sent to
the river the whole day
so they don't attend school.
The water has high level
of chemical contaminants,
so basically, you
cannot drink that water.
So we were looking
at something specific
that is able to utilize
the humidity in air.
[Narrator] Frustrated
with her own experience
of watching water scarcity
ravage her country,
Beth looks to nature
to solve the problem.
Getting water from air has
never been a new concept.
In nature, there are
some Namibian beetle
that actually have its drinking
water from the atmosphere.
There's six times more
water in the atmosphere
than there is in all
the wells around the world.
So that is a huge resource
that is yet to be
properly tapped.
[Narrator] She
designed a machine
that extracts clean
water from the atmosphere
and she calls it Majik.
Beth took her invention to
the Ark Children's Orphanage
so kids could focus
on education
instead of walking
miles for water.
These technologies
are very, very simple.
It works the same
as the refrigerator
and an air conditioner.
The air is pulled in by a fan
and then passed through
a condenser coil.
That's where the
condensing happens
and then the water is
dispensed to a collecting tank.
We just came from
a very dry season,
so this was the only
source of drinking water
for these children.
It's for security for them.
As long as you have air,
you can have clean
drinking water.
[Narrator] Technological
innovation isn't enough
in places where the
primary obstacle
to obtaining clean water
is something as simple
as it is elusive.
Money.
Today in 2019,
it's a million children a
year under the age of five die
because they lack access to
safe water and sanitation.
The very first water
collection I went on
was when the magnitude
of the problem hit me.
I was in a very rural
village in Zambia
and I was with this
14 year old girl.
She picked up the jerry can,
I picked up a jerry can,
and we walked off together
with an interpreter.
And we walked about a
while to this bore-well
to fill these jerry cans.
I asked her, "What are you
gonna do when you grow up?
"Are you gonna live
here in this village?"
And she looked around.
She was like, "No,
I'm not staying here."
She goes, "I'm going to Lusaka,
"I'm going to the big city."
She's like, "I'm
gonna be a nurse."
It reminded me of being
14, and with Ben Affleck,
and saying we're gonna go
to the big city of New York,
and we're gonna be actors.
I was just brought
back to that feeling.
And it wasn't until I
drove away that it hit me
that had it not been for
someone having the foresight
to sink this bore-well a
mile from this kid's house,
she wouldn't have any hope
for any type of
future whatsoever.
She would be spending her
entire day not in school,
but rather collecting water.
Please welcome Matt
Damon and Gary White.
[audience applauding]
I read one of the stories
from your organization
where there a woman who
was paying $60 a month
to get bottled water
delivered to her
so that she could have
something to drink.
Through your program,
she got a loan to have
her own water source
and then pays back the
loan at five or $6 a month.
Exactly.
Which is a simple
and yet insane concept
that nobody has thought of that.
-Is it that simple?
-Yes.
- Giving access to money--
- Yes.
To make their
own water source?
Yes.
And then they participate
in their own solution.
They fix their own problem.
With Water.org,
what we do is we break
down the barriers
between people and safe
water and sanitation.
We're able to help
them with financing
so that they can afford
filters at the household level.
So that people
can enjoy the fact,
not just that they don't have
to walk for water anymore,
but they also have
safe potable water.
Having raised and deployed
about 27 million dollars
in philanthropic capital,
that has unleashed
1.1 billion dollars
in these micro-loans
so that people can get their
water and sanitation solutions
that best meet their needs.
The real success story for
us in this entire endeavor
has been the fact that
the loans that we make
pay back at 99%.
And that is astonishing.
To know that these are the
poorest people on Earth
and all they want
is that if you nudge the
markets toward them a little bit
and give them the dignity
to solve their own problem,
they will.
And if you think of them
instead of as a charity case
as a customer with their
own economic citizenship,
then you're gonna be
floored by what they do.
And we've done over three
million of these loans now,
so that 99% number is very real.
[Narrator] Of course,
access to clean water
is only part of the equation.
A healthy and sustainable
future also depends
on solving an equally
urgent aspect of the crisis.
Sanitation.
According to the Bill and
Melinda Gates Foundation,
poor sanitation causes
more than 1,200 deaths
of children under
five every single day.
That's more than AIDS, measles,
and tuberculosis combined.
Although the flushed toilet
and central sewer systems
are considered by many
to be the gold standard
for safe sanitation,
the solutions enjoyed
by developed countries
cannot simply be scaled
down for poorer nations.
Therefore, innovators
around the globe
are developing locally
appropriate alternatives
that can be safer,
more cost effective,
and more environmentally
friendly,
often, an individual
visionary can move faster
and more effectively
than any government,
like this man,
who has developed a
solution to sanitation
for some of the
world's poorest people.
I grew up in the slums.
And growing up in the slums
is you come across sanitation
challenges everyday.
Everyday when I go to
bed and before I wake up
is like how can I make
sure my brother, my sister,
my cousin who is still
facing sanitation challenge
has a different life.
[Narrator] Dixon's
company Sanivation
is a truly local solution
to a global problem,
providing home toilets
and waste treatment
for 20,000 people in Kenya
in an economically
sustainable way.
We have 126 homes
that we've been serving for
the last three plus years.
And we are really excited
to see the impact we make
into these families
week after week,
month after month,
years after years.
[speaking in foreign language]
[Translator] Initially, we
used to have a shared toilet
that was used by
the entire plot.
And it was unsafe because
most people are using
and it's unclean,
so it's not safe for
me and my children.
And right now, I have a blue
box that I can use at any time
and it's also secure because
I can use it in the house.
I'm so happy right now
because my family's safe.
[Narrator] Sanivation collects
human waste once weekly,
employing 98 local workers
to transport these materials
to their centralized
treatment facility.
But Dixon isn't satisfied
with simply offsetting
the spread of disease.
He's turning waste
into a windfall.
Once it gets here,
our first step is treating it
with our technology that
we just harness the sun
and ensure all the
pathogens are killed.
After that,
it goes to the next stage
where we mix it
agriculture residue.
And after that,
we have a product
that is from feces.
And it can be used
as a replacement
for the traditional charcoal.
With this charcoal,
there's no carbon emission
compared to the
original charcoal.
It burns three times longer
than the traditional charcoal.
That saves money.
On top of that,
for every ton of
this charcoal sold,
88 trees are saved.
The sale of the products we make
cover the operation costs,
so that makes our
model very attractive
and a good option
to the government.
[Narrator] Sanivation
is partnering
with the local government
to expand their reach
across Kenya and beyond.
This kind of
partnership is crucial
to expanding the
impact of innovations
like The Water Box, Majik
Water, and Sanivation.
But recovery of resources
from water and sanitation
are not just important
in the developing world.
Creative solutions
are equally important
in cities like Chicago,
home to the largest water
treatment plant on Earth.
A city of three
million residents
where millions of
gallons of waste water
are discharged
every single day.
We get about 750
million gallons of water
per day on average.
We could fill an Olympic
size swimming pool
in about 12 minutes.
One of the pollutants that we
want to remove from the water
is phosphorous because
in excessive quantities,
phosphorous in the waterway
encourages algae to grow
and other water plants.
And if you have too much algae
and too much water plants,
it can clog the waterway.
[Narrator] While an
excess of phosphorous
damages aquatic ecosystems,
the element itself is
a key component of DNA,
making it essential
to all living things.
But phosphorous is
a finite resource
that is disappearing fast.
Scientists fear
that there could be
a global shortage of
phosphorous as early as 2035.
What if we could remove a
pollutant from waste water
and mine the valuable
ore of pure phosphorous?
Short answer?
We can.
Phosphorous is bound up
in the organic material
which we separate
from the water.
When it comes out the end,
it's kind of soupy so we have
to draw the water out of that.
And when we pull the water out,
the water is very concentrated
in ammonia and phosphorous.
Now, if we take that stream,
and doing a little bit
of chemistry magic,
add a little bit of
magnesium chloride to that,
turn it into a product now
using some commercial
fertilizer methods.
And now we have a product
that can be sold as an
agriculture fertilizer.
Only, it's not just
like any fertilizer.
It's not just something
that you would substitute
for any other fertilizer
because it's a slow
release fertilizer.
What's better than turning
a waste into a resource?
And one that you can
make money off of.
There's a revenue
stream for this.
This is a commercial fertilizer.
It's sold and we get
a piece of the profit.
The cruel irony of
wastewater treatment
is that there's actually more
than twice as much energy
in the wastewater
as what you would need
to be able to treat it.
And so why are we putting so
much energy into something
to destroy the
energy that's there?
That's essentially
what we're doing.
It's crazy.
We have these tremendous
amounts of resources
just flowing through our pipes.
It's free.
And then we're spending a ton
of money to get rid of it.
[upbeat music plays]
[Narrator] Perhaps we need to
completely rethink
the concept of waste.
As they say,
one man's trash is
another man's treasure.
While Chicago prevents
the overgrowth of algae
by removing phosphorous
from this wastewater,
one maverick thinker
in Southern Spain
is deliberatively encouraging
the formation of algae,
harvesting a simple yet
overlooked resource.
Well, algae is actually
the oldest organism on Earth
because they survive
with three little things.
The sunshine, the
nutrients, and the water.
Here, we create our own algae.
Rather than waiting
for a million years,
we do it in three hours.
We have big basins
we call raceways.
That's where the algae grow.
We keep it in there
for three days.
We feed them with wastewater.
With flotation, we separate
the algae from the water
and pump it into the digestor
where it gets converted
into biogas or methane
once we add the gas
purification steps.
[upbeat music plays]
Nobody would believe
how much oxygen
algae can actually produce.
And that oxygen from algae
helps us to clean the wastewater
so that we have clean
water at the end
and what we have enough
algae that we can harvest
and use for biofuel.
Toilet to tank is really
what we're doing here.
It was always my dream.
I'm a car guy and I'm
passionate about cars.
I can take my wastewater,
put it in my car,
and drive off into the sunshine.
[upbeat music plays]
We could put these algae
ponds all over Andalusia.
It would be enough to
fuel 30 million cars
in Spain with bio-methane.
We can actually change the
world little by little,
step by step.
[upbeat music plays]
[Narrator] This kind
of lateral thinking
is also being applied
to the problem,
supplying fresh water
in many different ways.
Just as Majik Water imitated
the Namibian beetle,
other innovators are
turning to nature for ideas
to solve our water problems.
Imitating nature in this
way is called biomimicry.
Basically what we do now
is we go out and find water
of sufficient quality.
We treat it a little
bit as we need it.
We use it and then
we throw it away.
Nature doesn't do that.
Nature recycles every drop
of water on the planet.
The water we have today is
the water we've always had.
And that water has been
reused and recycled by nature
for billions of years.
[Narrator]
Attempting to replicate
nature's own recycling process,
scientists in Denmark
looked for an answer
deep inside the cells
of our own bodies.
They discovered a protein
that can be accelerated
and adapted into a membrane
technology to purify water.
Peter showed up in my
lab one day as a graduate
just after graduating
with his little vial.
He always carries around
his little vial of
aquaporin proteins.
[laughing]
An average human has between
say 40 and 50
different variations
of aquaporin proteins
in their body.
They perform very
important functions
of regulating the flow
of different materials.
Think about what it would
be like if you ate food
or drank coffee,
if that immediately
went into your brain
and had a stimulating
effect on your brain,
you'd kinda go crazy every
time you drank a cup of coffee.
And so your body
has developed ways
of regulating the flow
of these different
molecules in your body
and an important part of that
are the aquaporin proteins.
So that's an example
where we've taken this
biological entity,
this biological protein,
integrated it into a membrane.
We actually reused nature's
way of filtrating water.
Using biotechnology,
we take out this small
aquaporin protein
that filtrates water
in all living cells,
which is extremely efficient.
It's not something
we have developed.
It's something that
nature has developed
through 3.8 billon
years of evolution.
We just stand on the
shoulders of that evolution.
One gram of this
aquaporin protein
can filtrate 700 liters
of water each second.
And so we coat the
surface of a membrane
with this aquaporin protein
and then we get
more natural water
and we can also instead
of filtrating water,
we can actually extract
water by forward osmosis.
We can open the doors
for an entirely new range
of filtration products
with this component that
nature has given us.
[waves crashing]
[Narrator]
Membrane technologies
such as the aquaporin protein
are also being employed
to make dramatic leaps
in our ability to extract
freshwater from our oceans.
Seawater by the
name is highly saline.
And to push salinity
out of water,
you need a lot of energy.
And seawater is one of
the most costliest water
that you can get.
In terms of next innovations,
in terms of seawater treatment,
that's exactly where we are.
We were talking about
40 kilowatt hours
per meter cube of water
treated in the 1960s, '70s.
Now, we are talking about
less than four kilowatt hours
per meter cube which is
a 90% reduction in energy
for the same seawater treatment.
We are looking at technology
which is half that further.
We have an incredible
array of exciting innovations
today at our disposal
that we did not have
20 or 30 years ago.
We can create biomaterials
from wastewater.
We can turn wastewater
into energy.
We can purify water
at a molecular level
to do things that we could
have only dreamed of doing
a few decades ago.
[Narrator] At a leading
water research
center in Singapore,
membrane technologies
are also being employed
to make dramatic leaps
in our ability to extract
freshwater from our oceans.
While advancements in
desalination will continue,
perhaps a simpler solution
may be closer to hand,
reusing the water
we already have.
On the Pacific
Coast of California,
massive overuse of water
due to population increase
and industrial demands has
caused record scarcities,
sounding an alarm to the state
that the old way of
diverting water to the region
is no longer a viable option.
In Southern California,
we have a very dry climate.
We've become accustomed to a
certain amount of lifestyle
and water usage,
relying upon outside
sources of water,
namely from Northern California
and from the Colorado River
through aqueducts that
were put in decades ago.
When we started looking forward,
we knew that population
was gonna increase
and outside sources are affected
by the same drought here.
[Narrator] The
Colorado Aqueduct
transports water from
the Colorado River
to Southern California.
The transport of water is
extremely energy intensive,
costly, and now,
unable to supply
California's current demands.
This used to be a
heavily agricultural area.
It's called Orange
County for a reason.
It was full of orange
groves, soybean fields.
There's a long time perception
not just in California
but in a lot of the U.S. that
when you use groundwater,
it's kind of a natural source.
It's usually free
from contamination.
It's very good quality water.
That it will just
replenish itself, right?
Nature will do that for you.
Rain, precipitation.
It'll eventually recharge itself
to the point where we
can just keep using it.
But natural precipitation
is not enough.
We can't rely upon nature alone.
We thought where
else could we look?
So there's manmade ways that
we can recharge the aquifer
to keep it sustainable,
so that's when we thought okay,
let's take on this wastewater.
[wondrous music plays]
[Narrator] Mehul's
team worked hard
to persuade the government
that using recycled water
to refill the aquifers
would enable Orange County to
future proof their supplies
and avoid another drought.
This membrane technology's
very good at
removing contaminants
and purifying water
that was once thought
unable to be treated.
The great part about
putting it underground
is we lose virtually nothing.
We actually lose more,
when you see a large
reservoir or a lake,
you love a good
5% to evaporation.
You almost have a
natural protective cap
keeping it free from
environmental contaminants,
and so it's kind of nature's
perfect storage bowl.
We kind of hit the
geological jackpot
by having this large
natural underground aquifer
that as long as we
take care of it,
can sustain all
of our population.
[Narrator] Of course, in
many parts of the world,
large cities are continuing
to deplete groundwater levels.
While governments struggle to
get a handle on the problem,
that's where
industry can step up.
Mexico City, with its
population of 20 million
people,
is literally sinking
under its own weight,
causing roads and
buildings to crumble.
Relying on governments to
solve the problem isn't enough.
To make a major
impact worldwide
will require the
progressive engagement
of some of the world's
biggest users of water.
Industries need to rise up
to bring this in the
center of the agenda,
invest in technologies to
reuse water or recycle water,
save water so that
the future generations
are not in a bad place.
[Narrator]
Industrial production
frequently involves water
usage on a massive scale.
Whilst the cosmetics industry
isn't the biggest offender,
innovation and processes
here have begun
that could influence
water usage
in many areas of manufacturing.
Because cleaning
equipment between cycles
is the most water intensive
part of production,
it is here where the
cosmetics company L'Oreal
have made the most change.
I think for us,
it's a company.
Water is important
because we need it to
operate effectively.
And in the areas where
water is critical,
we have to do all what we can
to reduce our impact
on these communities,
on these regions by water using.
So we have to reduce our water.
We started with water efficiency
to reduce our water needs,
then to reduce water
that we cannot reuse,
and then to recycle.
And we saw that water
efficiency is not enough,
so we started to
think what can we do?
And it was so obvious because
we discharge it wastewater.
In nature, no water is wasted.
We picked this as our
resource for freshwater
to replace city water.
Then we came up with
recycling projects.
At the end of 2018,
we had about 12 plants already
running with recycling.
Based on these
positive experiences
with the recycling systems,
we wanted to push the
system a little further
and we developed the
concept of dry factory.
[Narrator] Dry factory means
that 100% of the water needs
for an industrial process
is covered by the reuse of
treated and recycled water.
No city water is now
necessary for this purpose,
cutting down on water
consumption dramatically.
Now, we are rolling out
the dry factory concept
with priority to high
water consuming factories
and factories
operating in regions
where water is a critical
issue like here in Mexico.
[Narrator] If industry
follows this leadership,
the global water consumption
for manufacturing
could be drastically
reduced by as much as 90%,
depending on the
type of industry.
We don't have the choice.
We have to reduce our
environmental impact.
There is not a plan B.
Everyone has to be
aware and to contribute.
[deliberative music plays]
[Narrator] Cosmetic
manufacturing
is only one of many water
intensive industries.
For example, textile
companies like those in India
are some of the largest
consumers of water.
And many of them have
been major contributors
to regional pollution.
Poisoning water with dyes,
bleaches, and other chemicals,
and leaving their citizens
without usable water.
In 2010, the
government demanded
that all dyeing
and bleaching units
must either clean
up or close up,
threatening 55,000 jobs.
One textile factory
owner in Southern India
rose to the challenge,
discovering a
sustainable solution
and setting an example for
other factories in the region.
In 2010 and all,
there was a heavy problem
related to effluent.
There was untreated effluent
which was discharged.
The rivers were in color.
[speaking in foreign language]
Because of dyeing factories
and chemical factories
chemicals were discharged into
the Noyal river.
If we walked into the river, we
would get all sorts of diseases.
Our feet and legs would
be in pain
and have a burning sensation
Now, we are putting on
continuous efforts and our
technologies are
getting updated.
The river which was
colored two decades ago,
now, it is all fresh and clean.
And now, it is a total
zero discharge unit.
[Narrator] Water
from the dyeing process
including bleach,
chemicals, and salts
is now treated
instead of being flushed
into local waterways.
And instead of taking
water from the rivers,
Rahul's company is
reusing over 90%
of its textile
processing water.
[speaking in foreign language]
Now the situation is much
better
compared to even five
years back
Effluent from our factory
which has brine in it,
colors in it, salts in it,
that is taken to a plant
wherein it is stored for
about 24 hours in the bio.
There, it is all treated.
It is taken to the softening
plant and then to the membrane.
From the membrane, we
get all the reused water.
And the reject from that
is taken to the evaporator
wherein we get the salt
of the crystallization.
The water from the membrane
and the salt from the
evaporator is used here.
Ninety percent of the water
is returned.
Everyone is
participating together.
The chemical, the dyer,
and the membrane suppliers,
so it is all in a chain that
we are developing ourselves.
We are trying to keep our
industry environment friendly.
I think it is high time now
that everyone will have to
realize and start doing it.
No one can dodge
with this anymore.
[deliberative music plays]
[Narrator] In
another part of India,
the problem wasn't
pollution but supply.
In 2019, a city of
10 million people
experienced what was
once unthinkable,
but is now becoming
increasingly common,
day zero,
when a city simply runs
out of drinking water.
Everyone is after one
thing only in Chennai
and that is water.
Chennai is facing a
lot of water crisis.
Last year, we didn't
have rains at all.
Groundwater is not there
and rainwater is
not treated properly
and it's not connected
to all the sources.
And many apartments
have to rely on tankers
to supply them for water.
Recently, there was
a water tanker strike
for four or five days.
They are left without
having any water.
-[horns blaring]
-[intense music plays]
Day by day, it is getting worse,
so people need to just
do something about it.
[Narrator] Unlike most of
Chennai's 10 million locals
who were desperate for water
in the face of this crisis,
the almost 200 families in
this Chennai apartment are not.
How did these residents
avoid purchasing costly
water from tankers?
Resourcefulness.
See, as a teenager,
I've never thought
about it much.
But as a mother,
I want to give important things
like clean water to my kid.
We went door to door
explaining why we should
have rainwater harvesting
and how it is
supposed to be done.
Now, they're all trained up.
Everybody's doing that.
As a committee of commitment,
we decided that we
are not going to
buy a single drop of water.
So we have decided we
are going to upgrade
our sewage treatment plant.
We are going to upgrade
our water treatment plant.
We are going to upgrade
our rain harvesting system.
It all goes through the
rain harvesting trenches
and it will lead to the well
so that we are using the
water within our complex.
All this "upgradeation,"
well, it has given us
a fantastic result.
You can see behind me,
there is a beautiful
large green garden.
You may be thinking
from where you are
getting this much water
to make this greenery?
Absolutely, this is
not here groundwater.
This is water
which we reused from the
sewage treatment plant,
so it looks lush and green.
When I look through my window,
seeing all the other
communities close by,
I wonder if they have the
same water management system
as we do here in our community
that would help solve all
the water crisis problems.
We feel every drop
of water is so valuable
and we are not letting it waste.
It's a win-win situation.
Once you start to deal
with water more locally,
and that's a systems
level change,
not a technology change,
you reduce the capital costs
and you make it much
easier to reuse that water.
I go back to the
issue of scarcity.
Water reuse, we believe,
is one of the smartest
most efficient ways
for us to deal with that issue.
So more and more
of the landscape
is moving into indirect reuse
and going to full
water recycling.
[Narrator] In California,
we saw water conservation
at a municipal scale.
And in India,
we saw Chennai residents
of the building complex
taking water supply
into their own hands.
But could that be scaled
down even further?
Absolutely.
[upbeat music plays]
Here in the Netherlands,
a group called the
Dutch Water Alliance
has introduced
groundbreaking technology
that allows us to recycle water
right inside our own homes.
You see in industry,
measures are being
taken to use less water.
You see it in agriculture.
And so now, it's up
to us and consumers.
And we're wasting so much water
and it's so easy
because the water source
is already at our house.
The Hydraloop is a residential
gray water recycling system,
so it recycles water from bath,
shower, and washing machine,
purifies it so it can be reused
again for toilet flushing,
washing machine, garden,
and swimming pool.
We've created a very new
and innovative way of
cleaning the water.
We're using six
existing techniques.
We've combined them into one.
And they're all very
simple techniques,
and altogether,
they treat the
water in such a way
that is clean, clear, and safe,
and it's actually certified
to the highest
international standards
so it can be reused again.
Within once month,
we saved up to 3,000
liters of water.
And that's a lot
of water actually.
And so annually, we save up
to 30,000 liters of water.
It is our vision
that in 20 years time,
no house shall be built
without its own residential
water recycling.
I think if we don't
start living sustainable
and also water is
a part of that,
it will be a disaster in the end
for the whole world I think.
In 10 years time,
there will be 8.5 billion
people on this planet.
And if only 5% of those
will be recycling
their water in house,
it will actually stop the growth
of water uptake on this planet.
That really is the power of
residential water recycling.
[faint radio chatter]
[Male Speaker] Five, [beeping]
four, [beeping]
three. [beeping]
[Narrator] Many innovations
in water filtration
were developed for applications
far away from the blue
planet we seek to preserve.
To deliver water to the
International Space Station
is very, very expensive.
It's tens of
thousands of dollars
per liter to get it up there.
Water recycling's a big
part of NASA's program.
For instance, on the
International Space
Station right now,
the only sources of
water are recycled urine
and recycled humidity condensate
which is the water
in your breath
that you generate
from eating foods.
We've developed some
technologies that are associated
with mimicking the function
of your small intestine.
We look at how does that work?
How does that small intestine
have this sort of
regenerative capability?
And then we go into
the laboratory.
We use genetic engineering
and a variety of
other techniques
and applying it to making
membranes to recycle the water.
[Male Speaker]
Five, four, three.
You could bring a cup of water
and that's all you
would ever need.
You could just
recycle it around,
and around, and around again.
[Male Speaker]
We have a lift off!
Tower clear!
[deliberative music plays]
[Narrator] It's
truly inspiring to
see these innovators
often with very
limited resources
saving their communities
and helping to stem
the water crisis tide.
But we can't simply leave
the solutions to the experts,
the engineers, the
innovative visionaries.
We all have a
responsibility to act
and to act now to create
this Brave Blue World.
If we can look for the beacons
and the examples where
people are already doing this
and it's working,
that's what's encouraging.
And then it's simply
a question of adopting
and accelerating
that adoption faster.
And a lot of what
needs to happen
is simply we have
to think differently
and embrace those new ideas.
And that's down to each of us.
[upbeat music plays]
[Narrator] For some of us,
action might take the form
of pressuring local utilities
to be more progressive
in their approach to water
supply and sanitation.
For others, it might
be applying our talents
to become part of the solution.
So ask yourself,
what can I do today to
be part of the solution?
The answers are all around us.
We can be more mindful
of our own water usage
and that of our
family and friends.
We can research new
technologies
like the ones we have just seen
and apply them in our home,
workplace, and community.
We can support companies
showing leadership
in water management
and we can encourage
brands we care about
to rethink their
water policies.
We can pressure our
local, regional,
and national governments
to take tangible action.
Letters, emails, petitions,
social media campaigns.
These things can
make an immediate and
lasting difference.
This is a solvable
problem, right?
We know what the answers are.
We've tested the answers,
we've seen the
answers out there.
We know we can
solve this problem.
It's just a matter of putting
together the business model,
bringing all the
pieces together,
getting governments to
provide the proper regulations
to support to allow
water recycling.
[Kimberly Kupiecki]
I don't think it's technology
that's holding us back from
solving our water crisis.
It has to do with finance,
and politics, and policy.
[Cate Lamb] Banks control
two-thirds of the world's money.
If those banks made
it a requirement
for every loan that is made,
that there has to be a water win
at the back of that loan,
what an amazing
opportunity that could be.
[Glen Daigger]
One simple sentence to
the public about water
is demand more, demand better.
It's there.
You know, it takes
strong leadership
to make decisions
to go into areas
that haven't been
pursued before,
but to do it because we know
that it's the right thing.
It's the right thing
for our society.
It's the right thing
for our environment.
It's the right thing for
the future of humanity.
-[water rushing]
-[deliberative music plays]
[Narrator] For some of us,
action might simply
take the form
of recognizing the
ineffable value of water
and being willing
to pay the price
for such a precious resource,
even in regions where water
appears to be plentiful.
Just as climate
change has sparked
grassroots activism
across the planet,
the water crisis too requires
massive mobilization of people
who truly care about
our shared future.
I think quite frankly,
we create a movement amongst
the younger generation
and they will
simply not tolerate
that we do things as status quo.
[Narrator] Each
positive step we take,
every innovation we employ,
every progressive policy
initiative we enact
moves the needle further and
further away from catastrophe.
This can happen
in our lifetime.
This has to happen
in our lifetime
or we are looking at
a very different world
for our children.
We want to see the
government committed
in putting in money
and supporting sanitation
to be a reality to everyone.
[Matt Damon] We envision a day
when everybody has access
to clean water and sanitation,
and we envision that
in our lifetime.
We're on the brink
of being hopeless,
but we're not there yet.
And if we really come together,
we can make a difference.
And if you look at these people
that are doing amazing
things around the world,
you start to be inspired
'cause you're like we
can make a difference.
Like how lucky are we
that we're the ones
who get to solve this?
In 100 years,
people are gonna wish they
could solve a problem this big.
[waves crashing]
[U2's "Every Breaking Wave"
plays]
♪ Every sailor
knows that the sea ♪
♪ Is a friend made enemy ♪
♪ And every shipwrecked
soul knows what it is ♪
♪ To live without intimacy ♪
♪ I thought I heard
the captain's voice ♪
♪ But it's hard to
listen while you preach ♪
♪ Like every broken
wave on the shore ♪
♪ This is as far
as I could reach ♪
♪ If you go ♪
♪ If you go your
way and I go mine ♪
♪ Are we so helpless
against the tide ♪
♪ Baby, every dog
on the street ♪
♪ Knows that we're
in love with defeat ♪
♪ Are we ready to be
swept off our feet ♪
♪ And stop chasing
every breaking wave ♪
♪ Every breaking wave ♪