by Amanda Fencl, Rich Pauloo, Alvar Escriva-Bou, Hervé Guillon During the 2012-2016 drought, the state received more than 2,500 domestic well failure reports, the majority of which were in the Central Valley (DWR 2018).
Our submission was driven by open data from public agencies and assessed the vulnerability of domestic wells to failure in the Central Valley.
Which domestic wells will be vulnerable in the next drought?
Due to already low groundwater levels, a simulated a 4-year-long-drought starting in January 2018 would result in more than 4,000 domestic well failures in the Central Valley alone, nearly twice as many well failures compared to 2012-2016.
About 1.5 times more well failures were reported by households in disadvantaged and severely disadvantaged communities (DAC + SDAC together) compared to those at or above the Median Household Income (MHI+).
Results from the spatial model of well failure were used to train an ensemble machine learning classifier on 56 climatic and geologic variables to predict present day well failure across the Central Valley and assess the climatic controls on domestic well failures.
We can’t avoid another drought in California.
Our hope is to show local and state decision-makers what is possible with existing data and methodologies to proactively address drinking water issues in California’s rural communities.
Dr. Hervé Guillon is a Postdoctoral Scholar at the UC Davis Water Resources Management Group and Dr. Alvar Escriva-Bou is a Research Fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California.
Arnold, Escriva-Bou, and Lund (2017) San Joaquin Valley Water Supplies – Unavoidable Variability and Uncertainty.

In a big victory for grassroots activism in Macedonia, a new water supply system was built in the southern municipality of Gevgelija, after years of struggle by local activists who kept warning their drinking water is poisoned with arsenic.
The system will provide drinking water for the 19,500 inhabitants in the surrounding areas, local news site Gevgelijanet.com reported.
This development vindicated “Arsena” — a group of local activists that had been trying to warn the public about the water’s toxicity for several years.
Even though the Institute of Public Health of the Republic of Macedonia determined in 2012 that the water was dangerously toxic, the political authorities refused to admit that there was any problem with the water supply.
Arsena conducted additional analyses of the tap water in several different labs in 2014 and attempted to publish the results.
When the reporters of national media came to the “business” event, the activists presented them with plastic bottles of water from Gevgelija water supply.
Only one national level TV reported about this event, but that was enough for the citizens of Gevgelija to learn about it, and make a rush on the local shops to buy bottled water.
However, the construction site remained empty for the next three years.
The same year, after local elections, the municipal government changed.
Solving the water supply problem was one of the main goals for the new administration, and the facility was finished by November 2018.

CNN was told by the state that it has been adding HaloSan to the water in Denmark since 2008.
A spokesman for South Carolina’s Department of Health and Environmental Control told CNN in an email that it believed HaloSan was EPA-approved for drinking water based on the way the system was "advertised."
An EPA spokesperson tells CNN that HaloSan is not approved to be used to treat drinking water.
The state Department of Health and Environmental Control says it required daily monitoring, "performed by the certified system operator," of "any chemical" added to the drinking water, ensuring that the maximum dosage is not exceeded.
But, the couple says there have been concerns about skin rashes and kidney problems among residents for years, although a link has not been made directly to the water.
"How can they say it’s good to drink?," Smith told CNN.
South Carolina’s DHEC tested Brown and Smith’s home in 2010, and found about twice the legal level of lead in the water.
But Edwards says he couldn’t let go of a nagging feeling that there was something missing, especially after finding red flags, like a 2010 local newspaper story where a city official declared the water had safe lead levels nine days before the testing was conducted.
Wright, Denmark’s mayor, later told CNN that officials were relying on 3-year-old data when talking to the newspaper because that was what was available at the time.
Drink it.

CNN was told by the state that it has been adding HaloSan to the water in Denmark since 2008.
An EPA spokesperson tells CNN that HaloSan is not approved to be used to treat drinking water.
Wright tells CNN that he defers to South Carolina’s DHEC.
The state Department of Health and Environmental Control says it required daily monitoring, "performed by the certified system operator," of "any chemical" added to the drinking water, ensuring that the maximum dosage is not exceeded.
But, the couple says there have been concerns about skin rashes and kidney problems among residents for years, although a link has not been made directly to the water.
South Carolina’s DHEC tested Brown and Smith’s home in 2010, and found about twice the legal level of lead in the water.
But Edwards says he couldn’t let go of a nagging feeling that there was something missing, especially after finding red flags, like a 2010 local newspaper story where a city official declared the water had safe lead levels nine days before the testing was conducted.
Wright, Denmark’s mayor, later told CNN that officials were relying on 3-year-old data when talking to the newspaper because that was what was available at the time.
Skeptical of the town’s transparency, Edwards decided to request to test the town’s water at its source — the drinking water wells — for certain bacteria that might be causing some of the rashes and illness that residents described.
Denmark’s mayor told CNN he believes he has done everything to make sure the water is safe.

CNN was told by the state that it has been adding HaloSan to the water in Denmark since 2008.
A spokesman for South Carolina’s Department of Health and Environmental Control told CNN in an email that it believed HaloSan was EPA-approved for drinking water based on the way the system was "advertised."
An EPA spokesperson tells CNN that HaloSan is not approved to be used to treat drinking water.
The state Department of Health and Environmental Control says it required daily monitoring, "performed by the certified system operator," of "any chemical" added to the drinking water, ensuring that the maximum dosage is not exceeded.
But, the couple says there have been concerns about skin rashes and kidney problems among residents for years, although a link has not been made directly to the water.
"How can they say it’s good to drink?," Smith told CNN.
South Carolina’s DHEC tested Brown and Smith’s home in 2010, and found about twice the legal level of lead in the water.
But Edwards says he couldn’t let go of a nagging feeling that there was something missing, especially after finding red flags, like a 2010 local newspaper story where a city official declared the water had safe lead levels nine days before the testing was conducted.
Wright, Denmark’s mayor, later told CNN that officials were relying on 3-year-old data when talking to the newspaper because that was what was available at the time.
Drink it.

Pope Francis sends a message to an International Conference entitled, "The management of a common good: access to drinking water for all" which is taking place in Rome on the 8th November.
The one day International Conference is being held at the Pontifical Urbaniana University and has been organized by the Dicastery for Promoting Intergral Human Development in collaboration with the Embassies accredited to the Holy See of France, Italy, Monaco and the United States.
In his message, the Pope says the fact that in many parts of the world, people do not have access to clean water and often die from unhealthy water, “ is an immense shame for humanity in the 21st century.” He goes on to say that, “unfortunately, in many of the countries where the population does not have regular access to drinking water, there is no shortage of arms and ammunition, which continues to worsen the situation.” Corruption and economic interests The Pope adds, that corruption and economic interests all too often prevail over the needs of those who require clean water.
Pope Francis goes on to express the hope that those who speak and participate at this Conference will be able to stress the urgency, will and determination needed on this issue.
Holy See and Church commitment to clean water The Holy See and the Church, he points out “are committed to the access to clean water for all.
This commitment is manifested in many initiatives such as the creation of infrastructure, training, and advocacy…, he says.” The Pope underlines that “adequate anthropology is, in fact, indispensable for responsible and supportive lifestyles, for a true ecology, as well as for the recognition of access to drinking water as a right flowing from human dignity, and therefore incompatible with the concept of water as a commodity.” From the point of view of faith, he says, in every thirsty man we perceive the same image of God, as we read in Matthew’s Gospel: "I was thirsty and you gave me no drink".
Noting that this Conference appropriately involves representatives of different faiths and cultures, the Pontiff comments that, “the dual spiritual and cultural dimension of water should never be neglected, since it is central to shaping social fabric, coexistence and community organization.” He ends the message by inviting participants to meditate on the “symbology of water in the main religious traditions, exhorting them equally to “contemplate this resource which, as St Francis of Assisi wrote, is "very useful, very human and precious and chaste.”

The AfDB bank has approved a €117 million loan to finance investment into making drinking water available in Morocco.
The project will target 2.5 million people in Guercif in the northeast, Zagora in the east, Al Hoceima in the north, Tangier, and Beni Mellal in central Morocco.
The program, which plans to ensure sustainable access to drinking water, meets two of the bank’s five highest priorities: “Improve the quality of life for the people of Africa” and “Industrialize Africa.” For Leila Farah Mokaddem, the bank’s Morocco country manager, the project “will contribute to further improving the quality of life of millions of Moroccans.” “Taken together with our investments in education, agriculture and energy, it will facilitate the emergence of new poles of development,” Mokaddem added.
The project is also aligned with the priorities set in the 2016-2020 investment plan of Morocco’s National Electricity and Drinking Water Agency (ONEE).
In June, the head of ONEE in the Fez region, Mohammed Berkia, said that office is adopting projects to improve the potable water supply in Al Hoceima through 2035.
Berkia said the projects would cost an estimated MAD 714 million.
The government has budgeted MAD 900 million for the project, which will launch by the end of the year.
Berkia’s statements came three weeks after King Mohammed VI instructed the government to build river and hill dams to help alleviate water scarcity in rural Morocco.
The monarch called on the commission to establish desalination plants and to ensure sustainable water in agricultural fields.
In March 15, El Othmani announced that the government would introduce a national water plan through 2050 to solve water shortages in Morocco.

As his community deals with a state of emergency due to its dwindling water supply, the chief of the Ahousaht First Nation says long-standing issues with water on Canadian reserve land is a black mark on the nation.
Ahousaht, a small island community of 1,000 people near Tofino, saw its reservoir levels drop to dangerously low levels over the weekend.
Water is so scarce that the community doesn’t have enough to fight fires if one were to break out, leaders say.
Not only that, but the water supply that is coming in has been contaminated by mud and other debris from a weekend storm, with turbidity levels off the charts.
"There was such a severe, heavy rain and wind through the weekend that it was very clear there was a section of the dam where the water was just brown," said Ahousaht administration manager Anne Atleo.
The community has been receiving shipments of bottled water, which are being delivered door to door.
According to the First Nation Health Authority, 13 B.C.
reserves faced some type of serious water issue as of Oct. 31.
Nationally, 67 long-term boil water advisories are in place on First Nation reserves, according to Indigenous Services Canada.
The federal government has pledged to resolve all long-term drinking water issues on reserves by the year 2021.

The Board of directors of the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group, convened in Abidjan, approved 117 million Euros in financing for the implementation of the «Project to ensure the sustainability and security of access to drinking water» in Morocco.
The project «consists of securing access to drinking water in the provinces of Guercif, Zagora, Al Hoceima, Tangier and Beni Mellal, which have a population of 2.5 million, through new investments in treatment plants and drinking water supply networks», an AfDB statement said on Tuesday.
«Ensuring access for all to drinking water is the necessary prerequisite for any form of sustainable development.
This is a strategic contribution for us», said AfDB director general for the North Africa region, Mohamed El Azizi, at the time of the project’s approval.
By ensuring sustainable access to drinking water to meet the needs of the population and industrial operators, the program addresses two of the Bank’s five priorities, namely «Improving the living conditions of African populations» and «Industrializing Africa».
The half-century-old partnership between Morocco and the AfDB Group includes more than 160 projects and programs with a total financial commitment of more than 10 billion dollars.
These funds, more than 80% of which are dedicated to basic infrastructure, cover various sectors, notably energy, water, transport, agriculture and social development.

The schools will provide students with bottled water until lead contamination is addressed On Nov. 2, San Diego Unified School District shut off drinking water at three schools that showed elevated levels of lead.
Lead levels above the district’s standard of 5 ppb were discovered in fountains at Encanto and Birney Elementary schools, while six water filters at Fletcher Elementary School tested above the district’s standards, according to ABC News.
The district will provide bottled water to the schools and will take additional samples, according to a letter the district sent to parents.
Rest assured we are not waiting that long to take action; we are following the existing protocol of immediately securing the affected water fixtures and providing bottled drinking water for the impacted areas.
This informational letter was sent to parents: pic.twitter.com/0XarUumHfj “We have launched an investigation and will be taking additional samples from all drinking water fountains in the district that have previously been remediated with a lead certified filter,” the district said in the letter.
At Fletcher Elementary, elevated lead levels were discovered at six locations, including three drinking fountains and three faucets.
The district previously adopted a tougher lead standard of 5 pbb, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s standard for bottled water, following a July 2017 investigation which found high lead levels at several schools in the county.
The district has scheduled an information meeting with parents at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 28, at Fletcher Elementary to discuss the findings, as reported by NBC San Diego.