Water for All: Global Solutions for a Changing Climate

✍ Scribed by David Sedlak

• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Year: 2023
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 440
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

A fresh look at the world’s water crises, and the existing and emerging solutions that can be used to solve them

It is not your imagination: water crises are more frequent. Our twentieth-century systems for providing the water that grows food, sustains cities, and supports healthy ecosystems are failing to meet the demands of growing population and the challenges brought on by climate change. But the grim news reports—of empty reservoirs, withering crops, failing ecosystems—need not be cause for despair, argues award-winning author David Sedlak.

Communities on the front lines of previous water crises have pioneered approaches that are ready to be applied elsewhere. Some have resolved shortages by enhancing water-use efficiency, and others have used moments of crisis to resolve historic disagreements over water rights. Still others have employed treatment technologies that unlock vast quantities of untapped water resources.

Sedlak identifies the challenges that society faces, including ineffective policies and outdated infrastructure, and the myriad of tools at our disposal—from emerging technologies in desalination to innovations for recycling wastewater and capturing more of the water that falls on fields and cities. He offers an informed and hopeful approach for rethinking our assumptions about the way that water is managed. With this knowledge we can create a future with clean, abundant, and affordable water for all.

✦ Table of Contents

CONTENTS
Preface
THE SIX WATER CRISES
Introduction
1 Water for Household Use
2 Safe Drinking Water
3 Water to Grow Food
4 Water for Nature
ANTICIPATING AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE
Introduction
5 The Great Acceleration
6 Powering the Acceleration
7 Impacts of Climate Change on Water Resources
USING WATER MORE EFFICIENTLY
Introduction
8 Reducing Water Use in Wealthy Communities
9 Reducing Water Use in Low- and Middle-Income Communities
10 Reducing Agricultural Water Demand
11 Navigating the Jevons Paradox
EXPANDING CONVENTIONAL WATER SUPPLIES
Introduction
12 A Dam Legacy
13 A Second Chance for Dams
14 Storing Water Underground
TAPPING UNCONVENTIONAL WATER SOURCES
Introduction
15 A New Source of Water Falling from the Sky
16 Replenishing Groundwater with Treated Sewage
17 Refilling Reservoirs with Treated Sewage
18 Irrigating Crops with Treated Sewage
19 Coastal Cities Turn toward the Sea
20 The Coming Wave of Inland Desalination
PLANNING FOR A CHANGE
Introduction
21 Stillsuit for a City
22 Net Zero Water Buildings
23 A Better Salt Machine
24 Running the Rivers
25 The Right Things to Do
Epilogue
Notes
Acknowledgments
Illustration Credits
Index