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To effectively transport precious water, farmers in the arid Southwest have long shared community-operated waterways. This acequia is the 150-year-old People’s Ditch in Colorado’s San Luis Valley.
Colorado, USA, 2009
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Fattening up for winter, a brown bear on Russia’s remote Kamchatka Peninsula waits to snatch salmon in Kuril Lake. Often pristine and protected, watersheds in this largely intact ecosystem also support a fishing industry.
Russia, 2008
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The snowy peaks of the Himalaya are part of a freshwater cache that courses down to a vast populace: two billion people. But warming temperatures and fast-melting ice could cause disasters downstream.
Nepal, 2009
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Grass is not an option in Salton City, which survives on water imported from the Colorado River. With 20 million more residents expected in California by 2050, the state’s quest for water is never over.
California, USA, 2009
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Severed from the edge of Antarctica, this iceberg might float for years as it melts and releases its store of fresh water into the sea. The water molecules will eventually evaporate, condense, and recycle back to Earth as precipitation.
Antarctica, 2006
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The Maya believed natural wells, such as the Xkeken cenote in Mexico’s Yucatán, led to the underworld. Then and now, water flows through human existence, scribing a line between life and death.
Mexico, 2009
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Tourists snap memories against the dirty, melting ice of Mingyong Glacier in China’s Yunnan Province. As temperatures have warmed, the glacier has receded a third of a mile over the past decade, and its meltwater is no longer drinkable.
China, 2009
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As developments such as Discovery Bay increase in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, so does the flood hazard. More than a million people now live behind delta levees, which are susceptible to increasingly severe coastal storms.
California, USA, 2009
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Peddling clean well water for 10 cents a bag, this seller will have no problem finding a buyer in a slum in Luanda, Angola. In 2006 the prevalence of contaminated water in the city led to one of Africa’s worst cholera epidemics, with 80,000 Angolans sickened.
Angola, 2005
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The new year in Laos is celebrated with a splash—so much so that in parts of Louangphrabang, a city along the Mekong River, water pressure drops to a trickle during the Boun Pi Mai Lao festival.
Laos, 2009
