HOW TO THINK ABOUT IT

Natural disasters … Water shortages are often sparked by natural circumstances (though amplified by humans via climate change). For example, poor rainfall over the past two years left all four major reservoirs in Chennai, a coastal city of 7 million, virtually empty as of June (pictured). That compelled officials to begin importing water by the trainload on a daily basis. Cape Town, South Africa, had a similar crisis last year, when a three-year drought left the country’s second-largest city almost completely parched. And this year, Zimbabwe has received 25 percent less rainfall than the annual average, leaving two of Harare’s reservoirs empty and further burdening a country already stricken by economic crisis. Today, 17 countries that contain a quarter of the world’s population — including India, Pakistan, Iran and Israel — are running out of water.

… made far worse. But as those situations unfold, mismanagement often makes matters even more dire. For example, experts say rapidly urbanizing India has done a poor job of drought-proofing its cities and promoting more efficient farming. In Zimbabwe, which was driven into social and economic turmoil, critical infrastructure like boreholes languish in disrepair while politicians promise to build new dams but trade blame for inaction. Even developed countries fail to do much better. In Newark, for example, authorities at all levels reportedly ignored warnings as the city’s pipe system wasted away and spewed lead into the water supply. A PBS Frontline investigation this week, meanwhile, found dozens more deaths that could be tied to the tainted water crisis in Flint, Michigan. With 68 percent of the global population projected to live in cities by 2050, proper municipal management is more important than ever.

So what’s to be done? Besides boosting official accountability, ordinary citizens can also play their part. Cape Town, which avoided its so-called Day Zero (the day when it would use up all its water), serves as a good example. In addition to running a robust public information campaign, officials there also levied water tariffs on businesses. That sparked peoples’ concern over the issue and incentivized other players to further promote it. In the U.S., meanwhile, authorities appear to be moving in the other direction. Just this week, the Trump administration rolled back Obama-era federal water pollution regulations because they hampered landowners and developers. That hits on a theme experts say is often the trickiest when it comes to water: managing “a political and a social process between competing interest groups.”

WHAT TO READ

Chennai’s ‘Man-Made’ Water Crisis by Nick Aspinwall in The Diplomat
“People living outside of Chennai have blocked tankers from entering the city, fearing their own water supply would be sacrificed to supply the city center.”

The Trouble With America’s Water by Olga Khazan in The Atlantic
“The problem starts with the roughly 50,000 fragmented community public-water systems … many of which don’t have the resources or expertise to comply with public-health standards.”

WHAT TO WATCH