I have 20 acres and only store water from rainfall on our farm. I have changed the soil from sand to black loam in 10 years by composting what is waste vegetation to others. I now grow a erosion control plant called Vetiver. Water is precious.
Well done. Did you track progress on soil organic matter (som) and infiltration rate over the ten year period. I am guessing both improved significantly (i guess som 0.5 to 3.0 with 300% soil extra water holding capacity). The key point Alan Savory made was to get each drop of rain in the ground which is far from reality
I discovered her accidentally in a documentary of the platform Curiosity, I guess she works even for BBC as freelance, because this documentary is streamed by Bloomberg. Love her way to explain anything.
I am loving this series. Professor Hannah Fry is exceptional and having her at the helm of this series is reassuring, and a very credible voice to communicate complex topics with clarity and passion. She has a unique talent for breaking down intricate subjects like quantum computing and climate change making them accessible and engaging for everyone & really helping to explain the key fundamentals ❤
@@mazdarx7887 Yes? "Half of the world’s population could be living in areas facing water scarcity by as early as 2025", according to UNICEF. Water scarcity is a relative concept. The amount of water that can be physically accessed varies as supply and demand changes. Demand for water may be exceeding supply, water infrastructure may be inadequate, etc. Four billion people - almost two thirds of the world’s population - experience severe water scarcity for at least one month each year now.
@@mazdarx7887 Ah, there's always 1.. Yes, I do realise that as does a certain well known organisation you might of heard of called The UN, who I can quote as a reference here: By 2025, it's estimated that 1.8 billion people will be living in countries or regions with absolute water scarcity (less than 500 cubic meters per year per capita). Additionally, two-thirds of the world's population could be living under water-stressed conditions (between 500 and 1000 cubic meters per year per capita). Water scarcity is a growing concern, especially with factors like climate change and population growth exacerbating the issue. It's crucial for international cooperation and sustainable water management practices to address this challenge. I hope this helps clear up your doubting mind
@@mazdarx7887 it's not just in poor regions. China, USA, UK and more are all mega water stressed already so this is inevitable and like it or not but the statistics won't lie
4:59 “the pressure on the pasture, does that ever result in conflict?” “Whiskey is for drinking, water is for fighting” Attributed to Mark Twain, as an expression about conflict over water in the US West
📣 Machines that produce water using air pressure are called Atmospheric Water Generators (AWGs); they extract moisture from the air by cooling it below its dew point, essentially "condensing" the water vapor into liquid form, which can then be collected as drinkable water. Key points about AWGs: Function: They utilize the humidity present in the air to generate water. Application: Useful in areas with limited access to clean water sources. Energy Consumption: Can be energy-intensive depending on the technology used. Important factors: Humidity levels and temperature significantly impact the efficiency of an AWG.
The "Just Digging" project in Kenya is super cool! They carve half moons in the dry soil and then water can be collected in the rainy season and reforestation happens naturally. Kenya revived 40%!!!! of their land with green plants. It's an amazing project!
Unfortunately humans supposed to be the most intelligent species on this planet are also most ignorant and arrogant love to meddle with everything that is natural until it is destroyed. It doesn't matter what it is, let us take health for example. Everybody can use prevention by growing healthy, home cooking and using body and social support to each other but they would follow the laziest lifestyle and once it is totally messed up rely on the health system to get them right. But they will refuse to take responsibility for their own lives and those around them. Our education system should change, promoting the importance of nature and basic life skills. We cannot rely and blame our governments for everything taking no responsibility. We need to come together and stand together in this fight. What starts in our backyards will spread like a wildfire. Why do we continue to promote war in the name of creating peace, why do we use missiles, why does every country needs to spend a space shuttle to the space if we cannot learn any lessons from others mistakes. Why there is a water ban only when there is drought? Why can't we treat water as the scarce commodity even during rainy days. Animals in the wild do not hunt unless they are hungry. But we humans do like to ride in helicopters to shoot the defenceless animals in the wild in the name of sport. Sometimes the human behaviour, irresponsibility makes me think that pandemic is the bad karma that we create for ourselves and it can be also natures' way of teaching us a lesson. Yet we still don't learn from them.
There is no political will to do anything with water in the UK. We could be collecting run off from our roof and using it to flush the loo. But there's no profit for water companies in that.
@@danellis-jones1591Management issue? They know what they are doing prioritising C Suite salaries, CEO bonuses and the prime problem paying shareholder dividends...
@@lm_b5080 Do you know that Singapore's democratic dictatorship is what Red China has been modelling upon to "get rich" by sacrificing people's freedom ? The bladder theory applies to Red China's traditional generational thrift savings, though. It's squandered.
What a terrific presenter Hannah Fry is, a natural ability to impart her enthusiasm for any given subject, a liquid gold voice and forgetting PC just for a moment this lady is also “easy on the eye” 😉!, Britain’s youngest National treasure 🙂👍👍👍
@@cliffordjames4462 “political correctness”, in other words it’s bad form these days to comment on someone’s physical appearance, even if it’s in a complimentary way, I tend to ignore that, if someone has taken care of their appearance then I can’t see the harm in complimenting them 🤷♂️.
As Born Singaporean I am very proud that our government have Fix water issues. 👍👍👍 Not like other countries where their government totally useless don't know how to fix the issue. They should learn from us.
They won't start to fix the issue until it's not an issue and clean water is plenty. Mind you, Singapore only has this wonderful system because it didn't have enough space for traditional water storage system. In other words, Singapore had water issues from the start.
I read years ago before I moved to the desert in west Tx that the avg American consumption is 120 gal per person per day. That's 3,600 a month. I shower, cook, clean, do laundry, use water when needed. but fairly thoughtfully and avg 700 gal a month. Being mindful and every problem gets attention. Where does your water come from? Find out if you don't know.
that 120 gal per day figure include things like transporting your food and other non personal uses in short it is a made up figure to further the UN agenda of taking water rights away from individuals
📣 Machines that produce water using air pressure are called Atmospheric Water Generators (AWGs); they extract moisture from the air by cooling it below its dew point, essentially "condensing" the water vapor into liquid form, which can then be collected as drinkable water. Key points about AWGs: Function: They utilize the humidity present in the air to generate water. Application: Useful in areas with limited access to clean water sources. Energy Consumption: Can be energy-intensive depending on the technology used. Important factors: Humidity levels and temperature significantly impact the efficiency of an AWG.
Yes, but you need trees to get that rain water! Do you see Africans planting trees? Kenya today is a desert where 60 years ago when whites controlled it it was a lush savannah oasis
We need to implement this everywhere, every city, every country. Imagine how many conflicts could be prevented if places didn't have to worry about where they'd get their water.
Water vapor makes a huge difference on overnight temperatures. Humid areas don't cool off anywhere near as much. Therefore, if every humid location should use dehumidification to extract water from the air which reduces temperature and provides a source of clean water. In such areas, nightly low temperatures will be close to the dew point, meaning that minimal energy is needed to extract that water. Dehumidifiers would run between the hours of midnight and ~8 AM at maximum efficiency producing water as well as leveling load on the electric grid making it more efficient, too. Dehumidification can also be done almost passively (i.e., without the need for much electricity). If solar reflectors are installed over huge areas such that sunlight never touches the ground below them, the space under them will become much cooler. That volume of lower temperature can then be used to trigger condensation as moist air is circulated through the space. The reflectors will cool the immediate region. Louvered reflectors can allow the ground to radiate heat to space at night further increasing cooling. And the coup de grace would heat installing heat tubes into the ground to accelerate heat transfer from below ground to the surface to then be radiated into space. Solar reflectors should also be installed on every reservoir. This has two benefits: the physical barrier prevents evaporation, and reflecting the sun's heat reduces the water temperature which also reduces evaporation. Reflecting the sun's energy also cools the local region as over 90% of reflected sunlight escapes back to space (the light frequencies that can be absorbed Earth's atmosphere are absorbed on the way in, so the light reflected passes right through). In hot and dry locations, as much as half of the water in a river system can be lost to evaporation. Lake Powel & Lake Mead in the SW US lose 1 million acre ft of water each year to evaporation, and that amount of water is 3x more than the Los Angeles water utility used in 2016. More water in reservoirs means more water that can pass through hydro electric dams, meaning more cheap, clean electricity.
NIce suggestion but who would take the initiative sir. The World is busy waging wars rather than helping underprivileged communities. In just 2024 alone, hundreds of billions of dollars have been wasted on useless wars killing hundreds of thousands of innocent people. Why would anyone care if someone's dying from thirst?
@@theevermind The biggest industrial dehumidifiers are used in warehouses, shopping centers etc. These work on the principle of cooling the air below the dew point, producing water and dry (colder) air in the process. Cooling the air is done by cooling coils run by electricity. The bigger the room the more electricity, costing more money. Even the biggest warehouses would be miniscule in size compared to the air space over say a forested landscape. The amount of electricity needed would be stupendious, needing a very large dedicated power plant to run the operation. Since you suggest running the dehumidifiers nocturnally this can't be solar or wind, but ideally a coal/gas/nuclear power plant. Then comes the logistics. Transporting this water from the humid extraction point to where it is needed. The arid landscape to be irrigated will probably be a considerable distance from the dehumidifier plant. If this is on a higher elevation it can simply be done by water pressure. In any case miles and miles of pipelines have to be contructed, adding to the total costs. Once at the arid area, the water needs to be distributed via an irrigation installation with a mesh of pipleines criscrossing the landscape. This will also come at a price. Then most of the water will simply evaporate into the atmosphere due to the local hot/dry conditions. Then what? Your solar reflectors are even more unrealistic, both from an engineering as well as an economic point of view. Not to mention this would be an environmental disaster both in production of the reflectors as well as the devastated landscape. Explain exactly how you are gonna collect the water (in tanks?) and then transport it to the arid landscape for irrigation. Where it surely will evaportate into the atmosphere... I think I will keep my farm! :)
Fun fact: Most major rivers contain an excessive amount of pharmaceutical ingredients, i.e. traces of antibiotics, antidepressants, contraceptives etc. Regulations about water treatment are still blind to pharma contamination, so let's solve this first before we start recycling wastewater.
An absolutely central problem in the African drylands is the compaction of the soil surface that occurs due to trampling by livestock. This causes the soil surface to become water-repellent. It has not stopped raining, even if the rains are more variable, but the rainfall runs off too quickly into rivers. One very successful solution being implemented by the charity JustDiggit in Kenya is to dig half-moon shaped depressions, 5m across, that arrest the runoff and give it time to sink in. This allows the soil- and groundwater to recover. If the depressions are sown with grass seeds before the rains, the water they harvest becomes available for grass growth and also helps the thorn trees to recover and provide shade. The women can earn an income from selling grass seeds - and even now hay. This regreening also benefits wildlife.
2:57 "now 8 billion humans are interfering". I'd argue that if 8 million of the top contributors of this problem were held accountable, suddenly that 8 billion wouldn't feel that much of a burden anymore.
Held accountable in what way? By paying fines? And how is keeping them accountable in, for example, North America and Europe, how is that going to help people living in water-scarce regions? You can't just transport all the water they need around the world. Water scarcity is largely a local problem, and is, to some extent, a locally created problem. So, a better reaction than to blame a few is to find solutions that help the many, as Singapore has done. And let's not forget that Singapore is among the '8 million top contributors'.
@pjacobsen1000 Something like 30 companies are responsible for 70% or so of the total greenhouse gas emissions. Maybe not exactly those figures, but of that kind of quantum. If they had spent the $billions they used on climate denial on changing their products over the last 40 years, we'd not have the climate issues we have now. And water scarcity would be less severe.
@@danellis-jones1591 Could argue if Green groups hadn't so vehemently argued against nuclear power we wouldn't burn coal at anything like the rate we do now now though. It's a problem caused by everyone acting in self interest, if everyone stopped purchasing from the 30 companies or so you blame, the problem wouldn't be as bad as it currently is. But they're able to sell their goods cheaper than anyone else and so maintain the status quo. Excellent example would be Chinese funded nickel production in Indonesia, responsible for enormous environmental damage. But it makes electric vehicles cheaper so more sustainable nickel production has actually basically halted globally. Similar deal with lithium refining, but people are happy to feel like driving electric vehicles is a net positive so are more than happy to ignore these serious flaws and problems they're notionally opposed to.
@@danellis-jones1591 "30 companies are responsible for 70% or so of the total greenhouse gas emissions." Ok, I haven't checked that statistic, but let's go with it. What value do they bring to society in return? If we shut them down, how will that affect society? If we force them to pay, won't that mean they will just charge us for that extra expense by raising prices? No matter who you blame, in the end you and I and everybody else will have to pay the bill, because we're all part of the problem, we're all part of society, we're all part of this world.
BCWatson, yes, I lived in an RV for years and it does change everyone's perspective who spent time with me: quality of the source, scarcity of resupply, small tank all lead to respecting when and how to use the water and how many uses can be made for it.
@@pepe-zw4de And it won't matter whether you live in an RV or a boat or in a suburb, so it's not residential use. Desert states grow alfalfa, one of the most water hungry plants, to use as animal feedstock, because the farmers essentially need to use up all the water they have access to else they would lose water rights forever, but that is now causing downstream drought. There are numerous ways to optimise water consumption in agriculture 10fold. You can move water hungry plants to where the climate is more suitable for that kind of agriculture, where the natural soil moisture content is closer to sufficient, and you can make better planting choices in general, like if you're going to dry the plant matter to use it as feedstock, you don't want a water rich plant. Greenhouses and hydroponics consume a lot less water than traditional agriculture, since most of the water in agriculture is not actually incorporated into the plant, it just evaporates.
There are a couple of points that Hannah did not include which influence the water cycle. Plant transpiration and evaporation (about 40%) combine with ocean evaporation. As you dry out the land and reduce water tables there is less rain potential from land sources. Alan Savory made a key observation many years ago that you need to get every drop of rain into the ground which is far from the current situation. Hannah also touched on flooding and drought were the opposites so allowing more time for water to enter the ground and allow soil to store water reduces flooding potential (improving soil organic matter helps improve the amount of water soil can hold and increase the infiltration rate), It would be interesting to match annual rainfall with the satellite data to see where the biggest infiltration rate issues are.
We have all the water we need. The technology to purify and get it where we need it is well understood. The real problem is that it all takes energy and physical plant to make it happen. It's not even an energy problem but more of an economic one because that stuff costs money. Yes, take better care of the soil. Yes, prevent erosion and save run-off. But we need to do more than that to get useable water where we need it and when we need it. There is no reason that any region on Earth should ever have to suffer water shortage again... except greed and apathy.
Right. Nuclear power could be 10 times cheaper than fossil fuel. That makes desalinization and purification and pumping water EASY and cheap. But there is no advocacy group for cheap energy. Industry says we can't afford that--it's too cheap!
@@grumpystiltskin "10 times cheaper"? What does that even mean? I think you might mean one tenth of the cost or 10% of the cost. But, 10 times cheaper is meaningless.
Brilliant , Hannah fry as the presenter and a topic near to my heart , only way this day could get better is if a chocolate sundae falls from the sky gently into my hands.
When i envisioned that fantasy the sundae didn't come in a dish and instead a load of icecream and chocolate sauce just landed all over your hands and lap and laptop and it was really annoying in the end 💀
Thankfully Singapore has not just the foresight but also the resources to pull it off. In India on the other hand, all that's being done is restricting the water supply without fixing the problems. Most cities in India suffer from a severe water shortage, and nothing seems to be done about it. I have seen the ground water level drop and wells go dry in the last 20 years!
What I found really enlightening in this video was the fact that water doesn’t disappear or appear from the Earth, it’s all part of a cycle. Our thinking about water must change as a result. We must understand water as a global, planet wide resource that can be managed to avoid undue stressors. Since water stress is a key factor in global tensions and all the unfortunate losses that causes, we must come together to work together. Water and energy is not a problem but they must be addressed holistically to solve their shared challenges.
Water is even more fundamental for human living than high-intensity energy supply such as electricity. Power plants are located near bodies of water to use water for their cooling. The problem with water isn't really whether it's available. The real problem is whether potable clean hygienic freshwater is available in sufficient quantity to satisfy human needs. I reuse water several times per the specific needs of the application. For example, bath water can be saved for wetting and soaking clothes in a detergent solution. Soaked dirty water from the clothes can be used for flushing the toilet.
@@bripbrap Actually energy can be created and increased through mutual induction of charge in cases where adjacent antennas that are connected in oscillating circuits induce one another. Given this there are probably many ways that energy can be created. You have to be very careful when using absolutes because you can cut off a portion of reality from your sight. The word never can hurt you more than you think, and will lead to profound stupidity. People who believe in spacetime and black holes shouldn't talk about absolutes or with surety when it comes to science because their science is full of unproven absurdities.
High quality documentary with excellent narration by Dr Fry. Singapore represents a revolution that is coming in the future to even the comfortable developed economies of the planet.
Hello World wih Ashlee Vance was my thing on Bloomberg but now I think Hannah won me over with her bigger/extreme scientific/tech concenrs the world is facing. Plus I no longer see much new content from Ashlee Vance... Anyways Thank You Bloomberg for Keeping us up-to-date on the world of Science
The Paani Foundation (in India) and Just Dig It (Kenya, Tanzania, Senegal) have done some amazing work in capturing rainwater and replenishing ground water in dry and/or overgrazed areas. Just dig a whole. Then dig a 1000 more...
Soil health is the most important factor for global water cycle restoration. Regenerative forestry, wetland restoration, urban renaturing, rewilding, and spring recovery are all needed. Returning toxic and fallow areas and zones to abundance is also of paramount importance.
I think a lot of people also aren't aware of how much water is being wasted around the world on manufacturing our excess amount of stuff, as well as how much is being on cooling the systems that fuel AI and crowd storage, etc. And because so many of us have the privilege of just turning on the tap, we're not aware of how soon it will be before that won't be something we can take for granted.
In my applied chemistry degree, in the 80s, I asked the question "why don't we make people who take water out, put their output upstream from where they take it out". I was basically a heretic.
As a Perth resident, the fact that we have a higher average rainfall than London (or Melbourne) often surprises people when I tell them this. Especially when you realise it is the sunniest capital city in Australia. We get most of our rainfall over and done with in the winter months I was very surprised to hear Perth used as an example here, as I would expect most viewers would not have a clue about our city. I guess this program may be targeted at English viewers. We have plenty of immigrants from that part of the world here now😁
Wow, so the solution for water problem for those poor Kenyans was building a well and installing an electric water pump with solar power? Who would've thought that? So surprising! Water scarcity turns out to be just poverty and lack of even basic infrastructure, no way. And all these "conflict zones" are also just fantastically poor.
The amount of water on Earth is relatively constant - there is a lot of water! The world's water crisis is primarily an issue of unequal distribution, management, and affordability, rather than an absolute shortage of water. While there is enough water globally, many populations face barriers to accessing clean, safe, and affordable water due to geographic, economic, and infrastructural challenges.
We have this knowledge, and yet here in Australia we use our Great Artisan Basin for fracking, mining coal and bottled water industries with no supervision and almost give it away. And when we try to get some thought into how we are using our water, or the effects to our water, that massive lying company called New Corp paints conservation as nutters. At 78 years old, I will not be here to see what damage has been done. But my children and my grand kids will.
I also heard that Australia has the most advanced and largest water desalination plants that are turning ocean water into drinkable water. I think that's a great way to protect countries from the natural element - more countries should consult Australia and colaborate to build and manage hundreds if not thousands of those throughout the World.
@@bokiNYCHere in Perth Western Australia desalination is providing nearly 20% of our water supply. A great deal of the rest of our water is drawn from aquifers. And now we are replenishing those aquifers by injecting treated and purified wastewater back underground
The developed world's paradigm for water use must change...radically and quickly. On a mission trip we were asked by those whom we were serving about out living situations. The contrast that was exposed is that those fortunate enough to live in developed economies: • We enjoy low density living. That is, for example, 10 to 15 people would live in the shelter that my single family home provided. • We enjoy the luxury of transportation. Most of us own a vehicle. Many of us have a separate home for that vehicle: a garage. • We flush our toilets, water our lawns, wash our clothes and vehicles with pure drinking water. The last point is the most insane. Residences and buildings should have systems for grey water treatment and recycling. For example, water from sinks, showers/baths and washing machines can be used to flush toilets, with the remainder being filtered organically and passively, then used for landscape irrigation, etc. Only black water/sewage would go to waste water treatment plants. There, as in Singapore, the "waste water" is reclaimed and returned to the potable water supply.
I use all my dish, shower, laundry water for flushing. My "system" is a couple wash bowls for the sinks that get carried through to the bathroom after, a couple flush buckets stacked by the toilet, a couple 25lt containers in the cupboard by the washing machine. The first 20 odd litres of laundry water I will get rid of straight away as its the cycle that's heated and has most filth, so a bit stinky to keep around. The next 40 or so liters are rinse cycles so fine to keep in the cupboard or take through into the bath tub to pour into the flush bucket. This does mean swapping the hose between the 2 containers several times to do the laundry of course. I shower with maybe 5-7 litres of water (I don't like it running the whole time just briefly at the start and again to finish) with the plug in the bath tub, scoop the water up into the flush bucket after. I just flush the toilet with the fresh water to clean the toilet up here and there, or if needs be when I don't have enough and am not about to have a shower or something, but usually have enough. Just a matter of developing the habits around the activities, it's not much extra time or hassle really once your in the routine of it. I consume only around 10 cubic metres of water a year.
Green powered dehumidifiers can help. Pump water into the ground, recover herds, and help grasses and wild flowers regenerate. Food wastes should also be added to the soil, to build out bacteria colonies.
I still remember being in high school and going on a school excursion to the New Water plant in Singapore when it first opened. It has left an impact on me ever since on how precious water is. But also how normal that water tasted 😂
thank you for this, loved this! only thing I'd request as someone like me who only listen to audio is to either repeat the translations in English so we can hear what was being said in the interviews that was no in English.
2:52 "This cycle has been happily stable for thousands of years" I'm afraid that it's not the case.Water cycles have in fact been extremely unstable in the past: we had ice ages, the Sahara desert becoming a forest and back to a desert again multiple times, extreme carbon dioxide events as well, ocean brutal acidifications that had an impact on water cycles as well, atmosphere brutal acidification events, etc... Stability of cycles is an illusion.
The oceans are alkaline not acidic! Pure water, milk and salvia are more "acidic" than the oceans! It's just another misinformation in the propaganda machine for the non-existing "climate crisis." 🤡🤡🤡
Amazing? You clearly didn't grow up with your grandparents... everyone needs engineering infrastructure, so they can study and not break their back for survival
11:31 it's odd having grown up in London that I could so precisely pinpoint that they were at Somerset House based on the position of the trees, the river and the surrounding landscape in the background. It's a shame this was so obviously filmed like 11 months ago though as autumn has only just begun here now in 2024 and the trees are still largely green.
Water, eh? It's transparent It tastes like nothing It's pretty boring really But water, eh? I mean I cannot think of a cooler thing! Something so simple and yet so astonishing at the same time My love affair with water has only just started I have so much more to learn about this life enabler I'm genuinly excited! Luv ya Water
I had read long back an argument from a renowned author from India about water tax. Water tax on irrigated lands to bring equity between irrigated and non-irrigated land owners earning capabilities would help digging borewell and tube wells by non-irrigated land dwellers.
Basically all water use is for irrigation. It's as though food is ultra-condensed water: if you grow more food in one place and less in another, you shift water use from where you were growing food before to where you are growing food after. And if you can find ways of producing food with drastically less water, you would make more of a difference than you possibly could with even 100% recycling of municipal water.
In a city like London 30% of the clean drinking water is wasted by faulty pipes. Start there! In Africa it’s much harder, they just don’t have the water or money to do anything. They need help to harvest and store water.
As a singaporean, I hated drinking newater (they do sell newater bottled directly). It gives of a metallic taste. I only learnt after that it was because it was purer than normal drinking water, without minerals. Mineral water contains impurities that make it softer to drink.
See Permaculture videos, like Andrew Millison's, about Permaculture techniques for retaining water when it does rain and restoring aquifers for a more permanent solution than drilling down to the aquifer. And reducing flooding.
The problem with the solar powered water tower is it's very likely outside their reach to fix, leaving them dependent on external assistance, and it makes it harder to propagate if more are needed. Maybe it might make more sense to work with them to design windmills made from local resources like wood from trees, stones if they have them, and the stuff they use for clothes , or if some crop can survive there that produces broad resistant leaves or something like that?
really awesome and interesting take on the relevance of water and the consequences and solutions related to climate change. Yet the essential topic of "ownership" of water was only touched on a little from the perspective of the public actor. I think it would have been also interesting to look more closely at the struggles it mentions (such as the relation between the rain forest and us agriculture) and also at different attempts to privatize water. But thank you a lot for raising several questions inside my head :D
just a couple minutes in ... geologically, Earth has been receiving water from comets and meteors, adding to our primordial supply; dams do not block water to downstream users except temporarily when they fill their reservoirs; rather, dams even the flow of water (or, some combination of that and generate electricity, dams have conflicting purposes); if you clean the water before returning it to the river, you can use and re-use the river multiple times before it reaching its outlet.
Ahhhh, Singapore! I went there a LOT in the 80s. I went a few times in the 90s, but I haven't been back since. Christ, it's been 30 years since I've been there!!! I gotta get back...
In Australia, we have a major problem in the Murray-Darling Basin, where over-extraction of water for agriculture and other uses has depleted rivers, underwater aquifers and groundwater, threatening ecosystems and water availability for future generations and downstream for other states. Australia is also highly susceptible to prolonged droughts, worsened by climate change, which in future will reduce water availability. Rising temperatures and altered rainfall patterns will also intensify water scarcity in the future.
Well they radically cut down all trees along rivers and lake shores. Those trees were plated there for a reason and were crucial to the water conservation.
The water must be fit also not only for irrigation but also human consumption, drilling wells and storing the water is probably the way forward, these wells perhaps should be interconnected to form a grid.
17:05 _“Reservoirs risk running dry”_ What hasn’t helped was privatizing the UK water boards. The privatized water companies have been draining reservoirs and selling off the land for housing at a nice profit for the shareholders. Whilst introducing water meters to sell less water for more profit.
People respond to price signals so water meters are necessary for reflecting the cost of producing that water. Higher prices reduce consumption of a precious resource. I do understand that in a few very special places such as New York City, waterworks have been so well built that street fire hydrants' spewing water wasn't a great problem draining the water supply if they were capped to reduce the flow rate.
The Thames Gateway Water Treatment Works or Beckton Desalination Plant is a desalination plant in Beckton, London, adjacent to Beckton Sewage Treatment Works. * It was opened by Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, on 2 June 2010
@@solconcordia4315 much of that preciousness, and commensurate cost of production, is an *artifice* of privatization; that's a market failure. most of the rest is a direct result of anthropogenic global warming, which is yet another market failure (the failure to sufficiently regulate pollution). regulatory measures are far more economically efficient than is 'pricing water resources out of the hands of the world's poorest inhabitants'. /fresh water occupies the base of maslow's hierarchy and **no substitutes** exist for it //that makes it absolutely and unequivocally inappropriate for private sector allocation
When I was in elementary school growing up in West-Berlin (Some 50 Years ago) we visited a water treating plant there. And I think Berlin had a system like Singapore already at that time. Might be because of the special political situation of the city back in the days ... Anyway. Great video on a very important issue
Does one need to be a Professor to appreciate and understand basic principles about human survival? She introduces herself as a Professor but exhibits the innocence of a toddler on basic things like, man needs water to basically survive.
As a kenyan...what is the responsibility of our devolved units(county governments) in this with all the allocation they get?? Water is a devolved function remember...anyway thank you Hannah for highlighting this
I have 20 acres and only store water from rainfall on our farm. I have changed the soil from sand to black loam in 10 years by composting what is waste vegetation to others. I now grow a erosion control plant called Vetiver.
Water is precious.
I just want to be able to do something like that. You must have put up great effort.
Brilliant work brother... would love to see that
Water is life
Congrats, sounds nice !
you should share your story
Well done. Did you track progress on soil organic matter (som) and infiltration rate over the ten year period. I am guessing both improved significantly (i guess som 0.5 to 3.0 with 300% soil extra water holding capacity). The key point Alan Savory made was to get each drop of rain in the ground which is far from reality
Hannah fry has an amazing voice and is a great narrator. Loving these documentaries.
I discovered her accidentally in a documentary of the platform Curiosity, I guess she works even for BBC as freelance, because this documentary is streamed by Bloomberg. Love her way to explain anything.
she reminds me someone from a tv show or something
Her English access reminds of Minnie Driver. Not quite as strong but seems like same region. She's also a bit mesmerizing with her ginger self. 😍
Yes! And almost at the level of Philomena Cunk!
She's great and definitely makes these documentaries so much better imo.
I am loving this series.
Professor Hannah Fry is exceptional and having her at the helm of this series is reassuring, and a very credible voice to communicate complex topics with clarity and passion.
She has a unique talent for breaking down intricate subjects like quantum computing and climate change making them accessible and engaging for everyone & really helping to explain the key fundamentals ❤
You do know this is oct 2024 right and shes claiming "by 2025 , half of the worlds population will face water scarcity"
@@mazdarx7887 Yes? "Half of the world’s population could be living in areas facing water scarcity by as early as 2025", according to UNICEF. Water scarcity is a relative concept. The amount of water that can be physically accessed varies as supply and demand changes. Demand for water may be exceeding supply, water infrastructure may be inadequate, etc. Four billion people - almost two thirds of the world’s population - experience severe water scarcity for at least one month each year now.
@@mazdarx7887 Ah, there's always 1.. Yes, I do realise that as does a certain well known organisation you might of heard of called The UN, who I can quote as a reference here: By 2025, it's estimated that 1.8 billion people will be living in countries or regions with absolute water scarcity (less than 500 cubic meters per year per capita). Additionally, two-thirds of the world's population could be living under water-stressed conditions (between 500 and 1000 cubic meters per year per capita).
Water scarcity is a growing concern, especially with factors like climate change and population growth exacerbating the issue. It's crucial for international cooperation and sustainable water management practices to address this challenge.
I hope this helps clear up your doubting mind
@@mazdarx7887 it's not just in poor regions. China, USA, UK and more are all mega water stressed already so this is inevitable and like it or not but the statistics won't lie
@@robertaries2974 . Then it is much easier for those areas to make water. Rainfall hasn't diminished
4:59 “the pressure on the pasture, does that ever result in conflict?”
“Whiskey is for drinking, water is for fighting”
Attributed to Mark Twain, as an expression about conflict over water in the US West
📣 Machines that produce water using air pressure are called Atmospheric Water Generators (AWGs); they extract moisture from the air by cooling it below its dew point, essentially "condensing" the water vapor into liquid form, which can then be collected as drinkable water.
Key points about AWGs:
Function: They utilize the humidity present in the air to generate water.
Application: Useful in areas with limited access to clean water sources.
Energy Consumption: Can be energy-intensive depending on the technology used.
Important factors: Humidity levels and temperature significantly impact the efficiency of an AWG.
One of the best docu series ever shown on RUclips or elsewhere. Big congrats to the host for her knowledge, communication skills and attitude.
The "Just Digging" project in Kenya is super cool! They carve half moons in the dry soil and then water can be collected in the rainy season and reforestation happens naturally. Kenya revived 40%!!!! of their land with green plants. It's an amazing project!
London should be consulting Singapore on how to manage their treated sewage water
Absolutely
Unfortunately humans supposed to be the most intelligent species on this planet are also most ignorant and arrogant love to meddle with everything that is natural until it is destroyed. It doesn't matter what it is, let us take health for example. Everybody can use prevention by growing healthy, home cooking and using body and social support to each other but they would follow the laziest lifestyle and once it is totally messed up rely on the health system to get them right. But they will refuse to take responsibility for their own lives and those around them. Our education system should change, promoting the importance of nature and basic life skills. We cannot rely and blame our governments for everything taking no responsibility. We need to come together and stand together in this fight. What starts in our backyards will spread like a wildfire. Why do we continue to promote war in the name of creating peace, why do we use missiles, why does every country needs to spend a space shuttle to the space if we cannot learn any lessons from others mistakes. Why there is a water ban only when there is drought? Why can't we treat water as the scarce commodity even during rainy days. Animals in the wild do not hunt unless they are hungry. But we humans do like to ride in helicopters to shoot the defenceless animals in the wild in the name of sport. Sometimes the human behaviour, irresponsibility makes me think that pandemic is the bad karma that we create for ourselves and it can be also natures' way of teaching us a lesson. Yet we still don't learn from them.
It just needs to be nationalized and stop the awful management that's currently happening
There is no political will to do anything with water in the UK. We could be collecting run off from our roof and using it to flush the loo. But there's no profit for water companies in that.
@@danellis-jones1591Management issue? They know what they are doing prioritising C Suite salaries, CEO bonuses and the prime problem paying shareholder dividends...
Watching this from kenya this is such a thought provoking documentary....
crazy to think that Singapore got its independence in 1965 and Kenya in 1963 and how different these 2 places are today..hi from Singapore!
@@lm_b5080
Do you know that Singapore's democratic dictatorship is what Red China has been modelling upon to "get rich" by sacrificing people's freedom ?
The bladder theory applies to Red China's traditional generational thrift savings, though. It's squandered.
@@lm_b5080 Dude... Kenya has like zero rainfall.
Exactly
What a terrific presenter Hannah Fry is, a natural ability to impart her enthusiasm for any given subject, a liquid gold voice and forgetting PC just for a moment this lady is also “easy on the eye” 😉!, Britain’s youngest National treasure 🙂👍👍👍
Please what's the meaning of PC?
@@cliffordjames4462 “political correctness”, in other words it’s bad form these days to comment on someone’s physical appearance, even if it’s in a complimentary way, I tend to ignore that, if someone has taken care of their appearance then I can’t see the harm in complimenting them 🤷♂️.
As Born Singaporean I am very proud that our government have Fix water issues. 👍👍👍
Not like other countries where their government totally useless don't know how to fix the issue. They should learn from us.
They won't start to fix the issue until it's not an issue and clean water is plenty. Mind you, Singapore only has this wonderful system because it didn't have enough space for traditional water storage system. In other words, Singapore had water issues from the start.
no thanks
I read years ago before I moved to the desert in west Tx that the avg American consumption is 120 gal per person per day. That's 3,600 a month. I shower, cook, clean, do laundry, use water when needed. but fairly thoughtfully and avg 700 gal a month. Being mindful and every problem gets attention. Where does your water come from? Find out if you don't know.
It should be from melting glaciers . It’s fresh filtered abundant…
that 120 gal per day figure include things like transporting your food and other non personal uses in short it is a made up figure to further the UN agenda of taking water rights away from individuals
I'm in US and my average monthly use is less than 700 gal. I am careful with use.
📣 Machines that produce water using air pressure are called Atmospheric Water Generators (AWGs); they extract moisture from the air by cooling it below its dew point, essentially "condensing" the water vapor into liquid form, which can then be collected as drinkable water.
Key points about AWGs:
Function: They utilize the humidity present in the air to generate water.
Application: Useful in areas with limited access to clean water sources.
Energy Consumption: Can be energy-intensive depending on the technology used.
Important factors: Humidity levels and temperature significantly impact the efficiency of an AWG.
Yes, but you need trees to get that rain water! Do you see Africans planting trees? Kenya today is a desert where 60 years ago when whites controlled it it was a lush savannah oasis
We need to implement this everywhere, every city, every country. Imagine how many conflicts could be prevented if places didn't have to worry about where they'd get their water.
Costly to do new water !
Hannah is a very engaging presenter. I am glad she lent her talent to spotlight this issue.
Water vapor makes a huge difference on overnight temperatures. Humid areas don't cool off anywhere near as much. Therefore, if every humid location should use dehumidification to extract water from the air which reduces temperature and provides a source of clean water. In such areas, nightly low temperatures will be close to the dew point, meaning that minimal energy is needed to extract that water. Dehumidifiers would run between the hours of midnight and ~8 AM at maximum efficiency producing water as well as leveling load on the electric grid making it more efficient, too.
Dehumidification can also be done almost passively (i.e., without the need for much electricity). If solar reflectors are installed over huge areas such that sunlight never touches the ground below them, the space under them will become much cooler. That volume of lower temperature can then be used to trigger condensation as moist air is circulated through the space. The reflectors will cool the immediate region. Louvered reflectors can allow the ground to radiate heat to space at night further increasing cooling. And the coup de grace would heat installing heat tubes into the ground to accelerate heat transfer from below ground to the surface to then be radiated into space.
Solar reflectors should also be installed on every reservoir. This has two benefits: the physical barrier prevents evaporation, and reflecting the sun's heat reduces the water temperature which also reduces evaporation. Reflecting the sun's energy also cools the local region as over 90% of reflected sunlight escapes back to space (the light frequencies that can be absorbed Earth's atmosphere are absorbed on the way in, so the light reflected passes right through). In hot and dry locations, as much as half of the water in a river system can be lost to evaporation. Lake Powel & Lake Mead in the SW US lose 1 million acre ft of water each year to evaporation, and that amount of water is 3x more than the Los Angeles water utility used in 2016. More water in reservoirs means more water that can pass through hydro electric dams, meaning more cheap, clean electricity.
NIce suggestion but who would take the initiative sir. The World is busy waging wars rather than helping underprivileged communities. In just 2024 alone, hundreds of billions of dollars have been wasted on useless wars killing hundreds of thousands of innocent people. Why would anyone care if someone's dying from thirst?
I would bet the farm you are not an ENGINEER and/or and ECONOMIST!:)🤡🤡🤡
@@daNorse Then you would lose your farm.
@@theevermind The biggest industrial dehumidifiers are used in warehouses, shopping centers etc. These work on the principle of cooling the air below the dew point, producing water and dry (colder) air in the process. Cooling the air is done by cooling coils run by electricity. The bigger the room the more electricity, costing more money. Even the biggest warehouses would be miniscule in size compared to the air space over say a forested landscape. The amount of electricity needed would be stupendious, needing a very large dedicated power plant to run the operation. Since you suggest running the dehumidifiers nocturnally this can't be solar or wind, but ideally a coal/gas/nuclear power plant.
Then comes the logistics. Transporting this water from the humid extraction point to where it is needed. The arid landscape to be irrigated will probably be a considerable distance from the dehumidifier plant. If this is on a higher elevation it can simply be done by water pressure. In any case miles and miles of pipelines have to be contructed, adding to the total costs. Once at the arid area, the water needs to be distributed via an irrigation installation with a mesh of pipleines criscrossing the landscape. This will also come at a price. Then most of the water will simply evaporate into the atmosphere due to the local hot/dry conditions. Then what?
Your solar reflectors are even more unrealistic, both from an engineering as well as an economic point of view. Not to mention this would be an environmental disaster both in production of the reflectors as well as the devastated landscape. Explain exactly how you are gonna collect the water (in tanks?) and then transport it to the arid landscape for irrigation. Where it surely will evaportate into the atmosphere...
I think I will keep my farm! :)
Fun fact:
Most major rivers contain an excessive amount of pharmaceutical ingredients, i.e. traces of antibiotics, antidepressants, contraceptives etc. Regulations about water treatment are still blind to pharma contamination, so let's solve this first before we start recycling wastewater.
Or we could use the fresh glacier filtered water..
So what's the "fun" part?
And the evidence for the fact part? For instance what is the contaminant rate of those drugs in the Nile at the delta?
@@JohnFlower-NZ There's a 2022 study from the University of York, if you google pharmaceutical pollution in rivers it should be one the top results.
@@Think-dont-believe The engineering, logistics, transportation, economy, etc won't add up. Not even here in Norway. THINK AGAIN! 🤡🤡🤡
Wow ! That was one of the most interesting doco's that I have EVER seen. Thanks Hannah.
An absolutely central problem in the African drylands is the compaction of the soil surface that occurs due to trampling by livestock. This causes the soil surface to become water-repellent. It has not stopped raining, even if the rains are more variable, but the rainfall runs off too quickly into rivers. One very successful solution being implemented by the charity JustDiggit in Kenya is to dig half-moon shaped depressions, 5m across, that arrest the runoff and give it time to sink in. This allows the soil- and groundwater to recover. If the depressions are sown with grass seeds before the rains, the water they harvest becomes available for grass growth and also helps the thorn trees to recover and provide shade. The women can earn an income from selling grass seeds - and even now hay. This regreening also benefits wildlife.
Hanna fry you’re very talented science communicator!
This series really inspire me as a young man .
2:57 "now 8 billion humans are interfering".
I'd argue that if 8 million of the top contributors of this problem were held accountable, suddenly that 8 billion wouldn't feel that much of a burden anymore.
Held accountable in what way? By paying fines? And how is keeping them accountable in, for example, North America and Europe, how is that going to help people living in water-scarce regions? You can't just transport all the water they need around the world. Water scarcity is largely a local problem, and is, to some extent, a locally created problem. So, a better reaction than to blame a few is to find solutions that help the many, as Singapore has done. And let's not forget that Singapore is among the '8 million top contributors'.
@pjacobsen1000 Something like 30 companies are responsible for 70% or so of the total greenhouse gas emissions. Maybe not exactly those figures, but of that kind of quantum. If they had spent the $billions they used on climate denial on changing their products over the last 40 years, we'd not have the climate issues we have now. And water scarcity would be less severe.
@@danellis-jones1591 Could argue if Green groups hadn't so vehemently argued against nuclear power we wouldn't burn coal at anything like the rate we do now now though. It's a problem caused by everyone acting in self interest, if everyone stopped purchasing from the 30 companies or so you blame, the problem wouldn't be as bad as it currently is. But they're able to sell their goods cheaper than anyone else and so maintain the status quo.
Excellent example would be Chinese funded nickel production in Indonesia, responsible for enormous environmental damage. But it makes electric vehicles cheaper so more sustainable nickel production has actually basically halted globally. Similar deal with lithium refining, but people are happy to feel like driving electric vehicles is a net positive so are more than happy to ignore these serious flaws and problems they're notionally opposed to.
@@danellis-jones1591 "30 companies are responsible for 70% or so of the total greenhouse gas emissions." Ok, I haven't checked that statistic, but let's go with it. What value do they bring to society in return? If we shut them down, how will that affect society? If we force them to pay, won't that mean they will just charge us for that extra expense by raising prices? No matter who you blame, in the end you and I and everybody else will have to pay the bill, because we're all part of the problem, we're all part of society, we're all part of this world.
@@a29561 keşke doğaya zarar veren ama bizler için elzem olan üretimi ayda yapabilseydik😂😂😂
Go live in a RV or on a boat. It will change how you use water.
You're missing the bigger picture. Basically all the water is used in agriculture. Residential use is basically nothing in comparison.
@@SianaGearzsusuz tarıma geçiş(!)
BCWatson, yes, I lived in an RV for years and it does change everyone's perspective who spent time with me: quality of the source, scarcity of resupply, small tank all lead to respecting when and how to use the water and how many uses can be made for it.
@@SianaGearz and where does that agriculture end up? in your belly, at home. a household
@@pepe-zw4de And it won't matter whether you live in an RV or a boat or in a suburb, so it's not residential use.
Desert states grow alfalfa, one of the most water hungry plants, to use as animal feedstock, because the farmers essentially need to use up all the water they have access to else they would lose water rights forever, but that is now causing downstream drought.
There are numerous ways to optimise water consumption in agriculture 10fold. You can move water hungry plants to where the climate is more suitable for that kind of agriculture, where the natural soil moisture content is closer to sufficient, and you can make better planting choices in general, like if you're going to dry the plant matter to use it as feedstock, you don't want a water rich plant. Greenhouses and hydroponics consume a lot less water than traditional agriculture, since most of the water in agriculture is not actually incorporated into the plant, it just evaporates.
There are a couple of points that Hannah did not include which influence the water cycle. Plant transpiration and evaporation (about 40%) combine with ocean evaporation. As you dry out the land and reduce water tables there is less rain potential from land sources. Alan Savory made a key observation many years ago that you need to get every drop of rain into the ground which is far from the current situation. Hannah also touched on flooding and drought were the opposites so allowing more time for water to enter the ground and allow soil to store water reduces flooding potential (improving soil organic matter helps improve the amount of water soil can hold and increase the infiltration rate), It would be interesting to match annual rainfall with the satellite data to see where the biggest infiltration rate issues are.
Very insightful 👏🏾
We have all the water we need. The technology to purify and get it where we need it is well understood. The real problem is that it all takes energy and physical plant to make it happen. It's not even an energy problem but more of an economic one because that stuff costs money.
Yes, take better care of the soil. Yes, prevent erosion and save run-off. But we need to do more than that to get useable water where we need it and when we need it. There is no reason that any region on Earth should ever have to suffer water shortage again... except greed and apathy.
Right. Nuclear power could be 10 times cheaper than fossil fuel. That makes desalinization and purification and pumping water EASY and cheap. But there is no advocacy group for cheap energy. Industry says we can't afford that--it's too cheap!
@@grumpystiltskin "10 times cheaper"? What does that even mean? I think you might mean one tenth of the cost or 10% of the cost. But, 10 times cheaper is meaningless.
Brilliant , Hannah fry as the presenter and a topic near to my heart , only way this day could get better is if a chocolate sundae falls from the sky gently into my hands.
When i envisioned that fantasy the sundae didn't come in a dish and instead a load of icecream and chocolate sauce just landed all over your hands and lap and laptop and it was really annoying in the end 💀
These recent docs you’ve done have been fantastic
Kudos to Hannah Fry. She is exhibiting exceptional performance in her documentaries for Bloomberg Originals.
Hannah Fry is the perfect presenter with a great cadence and does not dumb things down. Also she is beautiful
Thankfully Singapore has not just the foresight but also the resources to pull it off. In India on the other hand, all that's being done is restricting the water supply without fixing the problems. Most cities in India suffer from a severe water shortage, and nothing seems to be done about it. I have seen the ground water level drop and wells go dry in the last 20 years!
What I found really enlightening in this video was the fact that water doesn’t disappear or appear from the Earth, it’s all part of a cycle. Our thinking about water must change as a result. We must understand water as a global, planet wide resource that can be managed to avoid undue stressors. Since water stress is a key factor in global tensions and all the unfortunate losses that causes, we must come together to work together. Water and energy is not a problem but they must be addressed holistically to solve their shared challenges.
"eponymous" = named after a person. A better choice would be 'enlightening'. Might have been an auto-complete error.
@@pjacobsen1000 thanks, corrected!
The same goes for energy. All energy is just converted from one form to another. It's never created or destroyed.
Water is even more fundamental for human living than high-intensity energy supply such as electricity. Power plants are located near bodies of water to use water for their cooling.
The problem with water isn't really whether it's available. The real problem is whether potable clean hygienic freshwater is available in sufficient quantity to satisfy human needs.
I reuse water several times per the specific needs of the application. For example, bath water can be saved for wetting and soaking clothes in a detergent solution. Soaked dirty water from the clothes can be used for flushing the toilet.
@@bripbrap Actually energy can be created and increased through mutual induction of charge in cases where adjacent antennas that are connected in oscillating circuits induce one another. Given this there are probably many ways that energy can be created. You have to be very careful when using absolutes because you can cut off a portion of reality from your sight. The word never can hurt you more than you think, and will lead to profound stupidity. People who believe in spacetime and black holes shouldn't talk about absolutes or with surety when it comes to science because their science is full of unproven absurdities.
We need to fund Regenerative Agriculture/Forestry & generate healthy soil like black earth. Holds onto water longer.
High quality documentary with excellent narration by Dr Fry. Singapore represents a revolution that is coming in the future to even the comfortable developed economies of the planet.
I for one, love watching Hannah walk in slow motion. My favorite mathematician.
That area became desert because of mis-management. Regenerative agriculture is what they need.
I don't think so. Droughts due to climate change caused by us burning billions of tons of fossil fuel.
This is the most interesting documentary I have seen in a long time. Great work.
I’ve made cleaning water my life. I hope this content spreads widely.
Hello Bloomberg
Hello Cradle of Humanity
Hello World
//Watching from Kenya with Love//
I wish she would do a lecture, or maybe a world science festival talk. Love her voice.
Hello World wih Ashlee Vance was my thing on Bloomberg but now I think Hannah won me over with her bigger/extreme scientific/tech concenrs the world is facing. Plus I no longer see much new content from Ashlee Vance... Anyways Thank You Bloomberg for Keeping us up-to-date on the world of Science
The Paani Foundation (in India) and Just Dig It (Kenya, Tanzania, Senegal) have done some amazing work in capturing rainwater and replenishing ground water in dry and/or overgrazed areas. Just dig a whole. Then dig a 1000 more...
Soil health is the most important factor for global water cycle restoration. Regenerative forestry, wetland restoration, urban renaturing, rewilding, and spring recovery are all needed.
Returning toxic and fallow areas and zones to abundance is also of paramount importance.
I think a lot of people also aren't aware of how much water is being wasted around the world on manufacturing our excess amount of stuff, as well as how much is being on cooling the systems that fuel AI and crowd storage, etc.
And because so many of us have the privilege of just turning on the tap, we're not aware of how soon it will be before that won't be something we can take for granted.
Very professional and well thought through video. Prof. Fry makes big subjects understandable and impactful.
There's no water crisis. There's an energy crisis. If you have energy you have everything else
In my applied chemistry degree, in the 80s, I asked the question "why don't we make people who take water out, put their output upstream from where they take it out". I was basically a heretic.
We do something like that in the UK - most water courses are poluted with farm runoff or untreated sewage where water is returned!
As a Perth resident, the fact that we have a higher average rainfall than London (or Melbourne) often surprises people when I tell them this. Especially when you realise it is the sunniest capital city in Australia. We get most of our rainfall over and done with in the winter months
I was very surprised to hear Perth used as an example here, as I would expect most viewers would not have a clue about our city. I guess this program may be targeted at English viewers.
We have plenty of immigrants from that part of the world here now😁
Wow, so the solution for water problem for those poor Kenyans was building a well and installing an electric water pump with solar power? Who would've thought that? So surprising! Water scarcity turns out to be just poverty and lack of even basic infrastructure, no way. And all these "conflict zones" are also just fantastically poor.
where was their government btw in not providing that in the first place? its really the 101 of government
The amount of water on Earth is relatively constant - there is a lot of water! The world's water crisis is primarily an issue of unequal distribution, management, and affordability, rather than an absolute shortage of water. While there is enough water globally, many populations face barriers to accessing clean, safe, and affordable water due to geographic, economic, and infrastructural challenges.
Professor Fry has the _best_ job!
There is no water crisis - get educated.
We have this knowledge, and yet here in Australia we use our Great Artisan Basin for fracking, mining coal and bottled water industries with no supervision and almost give it away. And when we try to get some thought into how we are using our water, or the effects to our water, that massive lying company called New Corp paints conservation as nutters. At 78 years old, I will not be here to see what damage has been done. But my children and my grand kids will.
I also heard that Australia has the most advanced and largest water desalination plants that are turning ocean water into drinkable water. I think that's a great way to protect countries from the natural element - more countries should consult Australia and colaborate to build and manage hundreds if not thousands of those throughout the World.
@@bokiNYCHere in Perth Western Australia desalination is providing nearly 20% of our water supply. A great deal of the rest of our water is drawn from aquifers. And now we are replenishing those aquifers by injecting treated and purified wastewater back underground
18:32 Harry Seah's and 20:01 Muhd Luqman's personalites are so fun!
I like your show mam. Underrated on RUclips
Go to Israel and learn how a desert country has solved the water crisis to an extant - providing water to its struggling neighbors
The developed world's paradigm for water use must change...radically and quickly.
On a mission trip we were asked by those whom we were serving about out living situations. The contrast that was exposed is that those fortunate enough to live in developed economies:
• We enjoy low density living. That is, for example, 10 to 15 people would live in the shelter that my single family home provided.
• We enjoy the luxury of transportation. Most of us own a vehicle. Many of us have a separate home for that vehicle: a garage.
• We flush our toilets, water our lawns, wash our clothes and vehicles with pure drinking water.
The last point is the most insane. Residences and buildings should have systems for grey water treatment and recycling. For example, water from sinks, showers/baths and washing machines can be used to flush toilets, with the remainder being filtered organically and passively, then used for landscape irrigation, etc. Only black water/sewage would go to waste water treatment plants. There, as in Singapore, the "waste water" is reclaimed and returned to the potable water supply.
I use all my dish, shower, laundry water for flushing.
My "system" is a couple wash bowls for the sinks that get carried through to the bathroom after, a couple flush buckets stacked by the toilet, a couple 25lt containers in the cupboard by the washing machine.
The first 20 odd litres of laundry water I will get rid of straight away as its the cycle that's heated and has most filth, so a bit stinky to keep around. The next 40 or so liters are rinse cycles so fine to keep in the cupboard or take through into the bath tub to pour into the flush bucket. This does mean swapping the hose between the 2 containers several times to do the laundry of course.
I shower with maybe 5-7 litres of water (I don't like it running the whole time just briefly at the start and again to finish) with the plug in the bath tub, scoop the water up into the flush bucket after.
I just flush the toilet with the fresh water to clean the toilet up here and there, or if needs be when I don't have enough and am not about to have a shower or something, but usually have enough.
Just a matter of developing the habits around the activities, it's not much extra time or hassle really once your in the routine of it.
I consume only around 10 cubic metres of water a year.
Green powered dehumidifiers can help. Pump water into the ground, recover herds, and help grasses and wild flowers regenerate. Food wastes should also be added to the soil, to build out bacteria colonies.
yes was curious about scrubbers and just increasing pressure differential and flow of humid air for faster condensate recovery
I still remember being in high school and going on a school excursion to the New Water plant in Singapore when it first opened. It has left an impact on me ever since on how precious water is. But also how normal that water tasted 😂
thank you for this, loved this! only thing I'd request as someone like me who only listen to audio is to either repeat the translations in English so we can hear what was being said in the interviews that was no in English.
This could be a long series on the one subject! Excellent.
Fascinating. . And very thought provoking. . Thank you Professor. .
Really enjoying this series, thanks to everyone involved
2:52 "This cycle has been happily stable for thousands of years" I'm afraid that it's not the case.Water cycles have in fact been extremely unstable in the past: we had ice ages, the Sahara desert becoming a forest and back to a desert again multiple times, extreme carbon dioxide events as well, ocean brutal acidifications that had an impact on water cycles as well, atmosphere brutal acidification events, etc... Stability of cycles is an illusion.
The oceans are alkaline not acidic! Pure water, milk and salvia are more "acidic" than the oceans! It's just another misinformation in the propaganda machine for the non-existing "climate crisis." 🤡🤡🤡
Those cycles __used__ to last tens or hundreds of thousands of years, now we're seeing changes in decades or even years!
It's amazing to know still lot people living with zer0 technology life. And Hannah you are so lovely 😍
Amazing? You clearly didn't grow up with your grandparents... everyone needs engineering infrastructure, so they can study and not break their back for survival
Rainwater harvesting pits in every nook and corner
I like what the Paani Foundation has done in India, as well as Just Dig It in Africa.
(Shakes head) A Water crisis is like the Food crisis - a distribution issue not a supply issue
11:31 it's odd having grown up in London that I could so precisely pinpoint that they were at Somerset House based on the position of the trees, the river and the surrounding landscape in the background.
It's a shame this was so obviously filmed like 11 months ago though as autumn has only just begun here now in 2024 and the trees are still largely green.
Water, eh?
It's transparent
It tastes like nothing
It's pretty boring really
But water, eh?
I mean I cannot think of a cooler thing!
Something so simple and yet so astonishing at the same time
My love affair with water has only just started
I have so much more to learn about this life enabler
I'm genuinly excited! Luv ya Water
We have all just wittnesed the ability to guid large volumes of water via hurricans etc.
no problem to supply needy parts anymore.
Hanna Fry is the best
Hannah - Smart and Gorgeous is a fantastic combination :) This video was really cool!
Great sciencefic and researched documentary
I had read long back an argument from a renowned author from India about water tax. Water tax on irrigated lands to bring equity between irrigated and non-irrigated land owners earning capabilities would help digging borewell and tube wells by non-irrigated land dwellers.
I am constantly amazed at how well people speak English in the least likely of places.
Basically all water use is for irrigation. It's as though food is ultra-condensed water: if you grow more food in one place and less in another, you shift water use from where you were growing food before to where you are growing food after. And if you can find ways of producing food with drastically less water, you would make more of a difference than you possibly could with even 100% recycling of municipal water.
In a city like London 30% of the clean drinking water is wasted by faulty pipes.
Start there!
In Africa it’s much harder, they just don’t have the water or money to do anything.
They need help to harvest and store water.
As a singaporean, I hated drinking newater (they do sell newater bottled directly). It gives of a metallic taste. I only learnt after that it was because it was purer than normal drinking water, without minerals. Mineral water contains impurities that make it softer to drink.
See Permaculture videos, like Andrew Millison's, about Permaculture techniques for retaining water when it does rain and restoring aquifers for a more permanent solution than drilling down to the aquifer. And reducing flooding.
Hannah Fry.Happy to finaly see her
Make more ..i love yours short documentary
The problem with the solar powered water tower is it's very likely outside their reach to fix, leaving them dependent on external assistance, and it makes it harder to propagate if more are needed. Maybe it might make more sense to work with them to design windmills made from local resources like wood from trees, stones if they have them, and the stuff they use for clothes , or if some crop can survive there that produces broad resistant leaves or something like that?
Thank you for contributing to my next and most important project in my future.
really awesome and interesting take on the relevance of water and the consequences and solutions related to climate change. Yet the essential topic of "ownership" of water was only touched on a little from the perspective of the public actor. I think it would have been also interesting to look more closely at the struggles it mentions (such as the relation between the rain forest and us agriculture) and also at different attempts to privatize water. But thank you a lot for raising several questions inside my head :D
I live in South Wales and we have plenty of liquid gold, even in summer Wales gets drenched, but that's how I like it.
If we can filter sewage water why cant we filter salt water? This is a valuable discussion that was missed in the video.
We can, but it's energy intensive/expensive. It's called reverse osmosis.
just a couple minutes in ... geologically, Earth has been receiving water from comets and meteors, adding to our primordial supply; dams do not block water to downstream users except temporarily when they fill their reservoirs; rather, dams even the flow of water (or, some combination of that and generate electricity, dams have conflicting purposes); if you clean the water before returning it to the river, you can use and re-use the river multiple times before it reaching its outlet.
Excellent Presentation of a serious problem. Vaya con Dios
Ahhhh, Singapore! I went there a LOT in the 80s. I went a few times in the 90s, but I haven't been back since. Christ, it's been 30 years since I've been there!!! I gotta get back...
In Australia, we have a major problem in the Murray-Darling Basin, where over-extraction of water for agriculture and other uses has depleted rivers, underwater aquifers and groundwater, threatening ecosystems and water availability for future generations and downstream for other states.
Australia is also highly susceptible to prolonged droughts, worsened by climate change, which in future will reduce water availability. Rising temperatures and altered rainfall patterns will also intensify water scarcity in the future.
Labor cuckhold, climate change is a scam.. Pauline Hanson will fix usm
Well they radically cut down all trees along rivers and lake shores. Those trees were plated there for a reason and were crucial to the water conservation.
I hope Hannah put some sun screen on
The water must be fit also not only for irrigation but also human consumption, drilling wells and storing the water is probably the way forward, these wells perhaps should be interconnected to form a grid.
Said the same thing in an earlier comment. Intuitively seems the solution to me, although difficult with that ground soil
@@olgafatica3445glacier filtered fresh water is abundant easy to accesses will prevent rise.
17:05 _“Reservoirs risk running dry”_ What hasn’t helped was privatizing the UK water boards. The privatized water companies have been draining reservoirs and selling off the land for housing at a nice profit for the shareholders. Whilst introducing water meters to sell less water for more profit.
People respond to price signals so water meters are necessary for reflecting the cost of producing that water.
Higher prices reduce consumption of a precious resource.
I do understand that in a few very special places such as New York City, waterworks have been so well built that street fire hydrants' spewing water wasn't a great problem draining the water supply if they were capped to reduce the flow rate.
The Thames Gateway Water Treatment Works or Beckton Desalination Plant is a desalination plant in Beckton, London, adjacent to Beckton Sewage Treatment Works. * It was opened by Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, on 2 June 2010
@@solconcordia4315 It is not precious it is literally everywhere
@@solconcordia4315 much of that preciousness, and commensurate cost of production, is an *artifice* of privatization; that's a market failure. most of the rest is a direct result of anthropogenic global warming, which is yet another market failure (the failure to sufficiently regulate pollution).
regulatory measures are far more economically efficient than is 'pricing water resources out of the hands of the world's poorest inhabitants'.
/fresh water occupies the base of maslow's hierarchy and **no substitutes** exist for it
//that makes it absolutely and unequivocally inappropriate for private sector allocation
@@sutenjarl1162
If it's everywhere, use any and all of that from "everywhere."
When I was in elementary school growing up in West-Berlin (Some 50 Years ago) we visited a water treating plant there. And I think Berlin had a system like Singapore already at that time. Might be because of the special political situation of the city back in the days ...
Anyway. Great video on a very important issue
Great lady. Great series.
Great job
Keep it up
From Argentina....
Such an amicable example of intelligence.
The "high level magic" Caught the host! :D :D :D Btw really interesting documentary!! Thank you Team!!
Forty plus years lve heard of what can be done. Time for doing.
That science hannah montanah is quite cool. Please more of that content
Thank you Hannah
Does one need to be a Professor to appreciate and understand basic principles about human survival? She introduces herself as a Professor but exhibits the innocence of a toddler on basic things like, man needs water to basically survive.
As a kenyan...what is the responsibility of our devolved units(county governments) in this with all the allocation they get?? Water is a devolved function remember...anyway thank you Hannah for highlighting this
For anyone who just wants to skip ahead to the "solutions", they start getting presented at around 7:00.