What do you get when 21st century “smart” technology hooks up with a 19th century irrigation ditch?

The short answer: more water-wise farming and a healthier river.

That’s the story of this innovative project on the Verde River in central Arizona, where forward-thinking farmers joined up with the Nature Conservancy and installed a solar-powered “smart” gate and water-level sensor on their 150-year old irrigation ditch.  The automated gate allows the irrigators to take just the amount of water they need for their crops, and leave the rest for the river.

Now, instead of drying up for miles during the irrigation season, the Verde keeps flowing—supporting not only local farms, but fish, river otters, birds, anglers, boaters, and those who just want to appreciate a healthy river. Read more

Clean water is essential for life, but most people in the developed world don’t think much about the water they use for drinking, food preparation, and sanitation. In developing nations, however, the search for safe drinking water can be a daily crisis. Millions of people die each year, most of them children, from largely preventable diseases caused by a lack of access to clean water and proper sanitation.

Sandra Postel, director of the Global Water Policy Project and the National Geographic Society’s freshwater fellow, said freshwater scarcity presents a growing problem to be addressed during the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) in Brazil from June 20 to 22. “It manifests itself in the depletion of groundwater, and the drying up of rivers and lakes upon which people depend for irrigation to grow their food,” she said. “The intersection of water scarcity, food security, and a changing climate on top of it all raises a suite of water concerns that urgently need to be addressed.” Read more

Earth is the only known planet to have bodies of liquid water on its surface.

Europa is thought to have subsurface liquid water. Scientists hypothesize that Europa’s hidden ocean is salty, tidal, and causes its ice surface to move, resulting in large fractures which are clearly visible in the above image. Although Europa is thought to have the ingredients needed to support life — water, energy, organic compounds — it lies outside of our solar system’s habitable zone.

Currently, Earth is the only known planet (or moon) to have consistent, stable bodies of liquid water on its surface. In our solar system, Earth orbits around the sun in an area called the habitable zone. The temperature, along with an ample amount of atmospheric pressure within this zone, allows water to be liquid for long periods of time. Read more

Some people like to stick to the sand when they go to the beach. The ocean can harbor sewage-related fecal contamination and a random infectious bacteria infestation or two. But it turns out that those who stay beach-side are actually making the more disgusting choice. New research shows that sand can be even more contaminated than ocean water.

Chemists from the University of Hawaii recently learned that levels of fecal bacteria in beach sand can be up to 100 times higher than in the water nearby. And, being scientists, they immediately set out to discover why. Their task was more daunting than they initially thought: a majority of studies on marine beach bacteria have taken place in water, not sand. Read more

For most people in the developed world, getting access to clean drinking water is as simple as turning on a tap. Would that paying for water were so simple. But when we think about the water we consume, few of us realise that as much as 80% of its cost is associated with electricity use – a figure that’s as high in Britain as in drought-prone California.

It is surprising, then, that the energy argument rarely features in discussions about preserving water. Yes, water is itself a valuable and vulnerable resource. But when we wash our clothes, have a shower or simply rinse a mug, we should also keep in mind that energy is going down the drain. Let’s talk about our water future alongside our energy future. Read more