In Afghanistan, only 13 percent of the population has access to clean water.

Only 2.5 percent of the world’s water is fresh, drinkable water. Every year, snow melts off mountain peaks and runs into rivers, which feed into lakes. This water accounts for such a small percentage of earth’s surface — it’s no wonder wars have been waged over water, and some speculate water will be the cause of WWIII.

These renewable sources are vital to all life on earth. Unfortunately, water as a renewable source is not distributed equally. Small island nations and arid countries have to import bottled water from other water rich countries or invest in expensive infrastructure such as desalinization plants. Read more

With severe droughts affecting over 36 countries could the solution lie in the ocean?

The ocean makes up 70 percent of the earth’s surface and accounts for 96 percent of the water on the planet. The problem is, this water can’t be consumed. It’s oversaturated with salt.

Desalination is the process of turning salty ocean water into drinking water. So with 783 million people lacking access to clean water and more areas facing severe droughts, could desalination be the silver bullet?

The Middle East has been a leader in desalination so far. Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Israel rely heavily on desalination as a source for clean water. Israel gets 40 percent of domestic water from desalination. These countries also have hardly any groundwater or fresh water sources so desalination is a case of innovation by necessity. These countries make up the one percent of the world currently relying on desalination to meet water needs. But the UN predicts that by 2025 14 percent of the world will rely on desalination to meet water needs. Read more

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Zero Mass Water’s device allows people to generate their own drinking water — even in arid regions.

A start-up in Arizona has created an at-home water-generating technologythat could be a breath of fresh air for 844 million people who lack clean, safe drinking water around the world.

That’s because Zero Mass Water’s rooftop system, already serving a few families and businesses in Arizona and California, pulls water from the air — no matter the climate or humidity level.

“We want to guarantee access to safe drinking water for every person in the world and fundamentally change the human relationship to water,” Zero Mass Water founder Cody Friesen told Forbes. Read more

On a dry, rocky slope of Mount Boutmezguida in southwest Morocco, a series of mesh billboards stand perched among the scrubby vegetation. Anchored with thick cables and framed with steel poles, they provide a life-giving element that people in many parts of the world take for granted: water.

Mesh billboards on the Moroccan mountainside will soon be joined by numerous others a planned 31 in all to create the world’s largest fog collection facility.

People living in regions where water is scarce spend hours each day tracking it down from sources that are often severely contaminated. UN-Water, the United Nations’ water agency, estimates that by 2025, 1.8 billion people will be impacted by water scarcity a similar number of people currently rely on water that is faecally contaminated. And this reality disproportionately affects women, who in many regions are tasked with finding water; girls are pulled out of school to complete the job.

But despite the lack of rain in many coastal regions Chile, Eritrea, Morocco clouds of fog frequently shroud the landscape. And clouds mean water. Read more