A Quarter of Humanity Faces Looming Water Crisis

This New York Times article is a timely reminder that lack of access to clean healthy water is an issue in many parts of the world and is a growing problem. 

At the UCSB Institute for Energy Efficiency, researchers in one of our core research themes, the Food-Energy-Water Nexus, attack some aspects of this complex problem arena. In particular, the researchers in our Food-Energy-Water Nexus theme are examining the interplay between humans use of water, humans use of energy and how we produce the food that we eat. For example, the relationship between water and energy is incredibly important. The movement of water through hydro-electric systems produces significant electricity for our power grids and there are even some systems that "store" intermittent renewable energy by pumping water up hill to release later when the grid needs the power to meet demand. A surprising amount of power is also required to move water around for residential, agricultural and industrial use,  e.g., the California Energy Commission reports that 19% of all the electricity consumed in California is used to move water! More than a third of that water-movement power is consumed to irrigate crops and move water across larger distances. Some of IEE's researchers are developing technologies to make the growing of crops more local, and more efficient in terms of water and energy (and in some cases more safe and pest-tolerant) by applying specialized crop friendly lighting and systems technologies to monitor, measure and control water and energy use.