How San Antonio prioritizes helping low-income residents with their water bills

In order to use less water in drought-ridden Utah, many residents are replacing their grassy park strips with vegetation and rocks that don’t need as much irrigation. As part of the “Flip Your Strip” initiative, the Weber Basin Water Conservancy District provides participants with money per square foot of grass removed. While the program is new, this idea has been tried and tested in California, where studies have shown that it is making an impact.

A multi-stakeholder partnership in Baltimore transformed their polluted harbor into a swimmable waterway. The combination of innovative trash collection systems (Mr. Trash Wheel), a $430 million sewage treatment facility that reduced overflows by 80%, floating wetlands (which restored natural habitats for 139 species), and a continuous water quality monitoring program altogether overcame intense infrastructure investments and decades of sustained contrary efforts.

Wastewater treatment plants constructed to mimic natural wetlands — complete with varied topographies, native plants, and logs — are becoming a popular way to prevent pollution while creating environments where wildlife can thrive.

The I-WASH program aims to combat waterborne diseases and address challenges facing communities without access to clean water. The program has built toilets in schools, provided handwashing facilities, as well as a solar-powered borehole and educational services on sanitation practices and how to maintain the water points. Through the help of the I-WASH program, as of May 2022, 300 functional toilets had been built in households across more than 30 communities.

Replacing nonfunctional grass lawns that require excessive amounts of water with a mix of desert plants and a few plants that need more water can help save water and keep cities like Las Vegas cool.

Strict laws put in place to regulate water waste have caused a 26% decrease in water use since 2002. Through practices like limiting outdoor watering and water recycling by The Southern Nevada Water Authority, the state has seen a 26 billion gallon reduction in the last year alone.

Water harvesting is collecting free water, such as rain, stormwater, and greywater, to use and finding ways to make it linger longer into the dry season. This can include active strategies like collecting it in tanks or passive strategies like directing it towards rain gardens to water plants. Water harvesting can help prevent the depletion of lakes and rivers and save money.

The Grassroots Aid Initiative uses the power of photography to bring safe drinking water to communities in Nigeria. The women-led nonprofit takes pictures of these villages and uses the images to crowdfund on social media. So far, they’ve been able to bring motorized boreholes in 15 communities to help combat water scarcity.

A pilot experiment in Canada shows that adding a filter on a washing machine can prevent microfibers from entering the wastewater system and ending up in marine ecosystems. After installing these filters on machines in a community, there was a 41 percent decrease of microfibers in the washing machine liquid waste. This will not keep all microfibers from ending up in the environment, but legislators are working on passing bills requiring manufacturers to get these filters installed on new machines.

Cleveland’s water affordability initiative has provided relief to qualified homeowners in the city. The Homestead Water program alleviates debt and locks in reduced water utility rates. The program also has a streamlined application process, which has led to higher enrollment rates.