Advancing desalination technology isn't just about coastal megacities — it's about unlocking clean water for remote communities, island nations, and even U.S. regions with salty groundwater. Lauren Greenlee of XPRIZE shares how innovations from the $119M Water Scarcity competition could transform water access across the world, including tapping into America's…
Today, over 70% of desalination capacity serves wealthy nations — but high costs, fragile membranes, and brine pollution are part of what blocks more widespread global access to clean water via the technology. XPRIZE is aiming to change that. Lauren Greenlee explains how the $119 million XPRIZE Water Scarcity competition…
💧 H2O Intro 🤝 Meet Ayanna Jolivet Mccloud of Bayou City Waterkeeper In Houston, floodwaters don’t impact all communities equally. As Executive Director of Bayou City Waterkeeper, Ayanna is protecting overlooked neighborhoods—many communities of color—by championing natural infrastructure like Sims Bayou, a rare waterway free of concrete that helps mitigate…
Imagine using $10 million to unlock a $1 trillion industry. That’s the power of incentivized innovation. XPRIZE is proving that philanthropy can do more than give — it can spark entire ecosystems and create new industries by leveraging prizes to drive massive investment and impact. Lauren Greenlee of XPRIZE says…
Desalination is a proven technology—but it’s still too costly, energy-intensive, and inaccessible for the communities that need it most. To change that, XPRIZE launched a $119 million global competition to drive breakthroughs in seawater desalination and deliver scalable, sustainable solutions. Lauren Greenlee, Executive Vice President of Food+Water+Waste at XPRIZE, shares…
From songs and stories to paddles and place—environmental education with the Coharie Tribe is immersive, joyful, and rooted in culture. Visitors tour the tribal center, learn about history, and then journey onto the river with Coharie guides who share deep knowledge of their ancestral waters. It's outdoor learning like no…
Drinking water infrastructure is critical—and largely out of sight. In this episode of 💧H2O Minute News ⏰, Manny Teodoro of the University of Wisconsin wants to change that with the Wisconsin Water Works Excellence Project, a first-of-its-kind statewide effort to grade all 572 regulated water utilities. Using detailed public data,…
In 2015, the Coharie Tribe began restoring access to their ancestral river with little more than borrowed chainsaws and community grit. The Great Coharie River Initiative has since opened miles of waterway, reconnected tribal members to cultural traditions, and brought a surge of programs, funding, and visibility to the community.…
Des Moines Water Works is building trust in tap water through multilingual outreach, facility tours, and community partnerships focused on immigrant and refugee populations. Millions of Americans turn to bottled water not because of quality—but because of trust. Melissa Walker, Communications and Outreach Manager at Des Moines Water Works, is…
A river gave life to generations of the Coharie people—and when the tribe returned to care for it, the river gave something back: a 650-year-old dugout canoe, revealed beneath the water’s surface like a message from the ancestors. “The river took care of our ancestors. And then when we started…
A 2,600-year-old bald cypress tree stands quietly in North Carolina’s Three Sisters Swamp—older than the Roman Empire, untouched by time, and protected by a resurgent tribal community. In this powerful episode, Travis Loop joins members of the Coharie Tribe on a World Water Day paddle through their ancestral waters on…
Radhika Fox, former head of EPA’s Office of Water, reflects on the civil servants behind the scenes: engineers, scientists, lawyers, and policy pros who dedicate their careers to clean water and public health. At a time when government work is often politicized or misunderstood, Radhika reminds us how these professionals…
When water is on the ballot, it wins. In the last election cycle, more water-related ballot measures were introduced—and passed—than ever before, from New York to California. Former EPA water chief Radhika Fox says during an interview at the Reservoir Center that it's proof: clean water transcends partisanship and unites…
This is a $2 billion Texas-sized solution to land subsidence and future water scarcity. The Northeast Water Purification Plant in Houston is now the largest design-build drinking water project in the U.S., quadrupling capacity to deliver 400 million gallons a day. By switching from groundwater to surface water from Lake…
EPA’s PFAS plan focused on Research, Restrict, Remediate. Radhika Fox shares how the agency tackled “forever chemicals” in water, land, and air with a unified, science-based strategy. PFAS have contaminated drinking water, land, and air across the U.S. To take action on PFAS during her tenure at EPA, Radhika Fox…
Meet An Indigenous Water Guardian Fighting For Conservation 💧 H2O INTRO 🌿 Meet Beth Roach of the Sierra Club & Nottoway Indian Tribe of Virginia What does it mean to protect water through culture, ceremony, and story? Beth Roach brings a powerful blend of Indigenous leadership and environmental advocacy to…
EPA's $500M WaterTA program helps 1,500 rural and underserved communities access clean water funding through technical assistance, planning support, and infrastructure capacity building. “It was about building capacity so more people could actually get on the list,” says Radhika Fox, former head of EPA’s Office of Water. Episode at https://bit.ly/RadhikaFoxPolicy…
What HAPPENS When Water Policy Puts People First? Radhika Fox Reflects Radhika Fox has spent her career at the intersection of people, policy, and infrastructure. In a conversation from the Reservoir Center in Washington, D.C., the former head of EPA's Office of Water shares how she helped lead the largest…
Uncover the shocking truth behind Baytown's abandoned neighborhood and the factors of groundwater, flooding, and subsidence that led to its demise. Explore the hydrology of Houston in this eye-opening video! What happens when you pump too much groundwater? In Baytown, Texas, it sank a neighborhood. Over four decades, the ground…
For Muslims observing Ramadan, the first sip of water at sunset is more than hydration—it’s a sacred reconnection with life itself. Huda Alkaff of Wisconsin Green Muslims shares how Islamic teachings foster a deep spiritual and sustainable relationship with water. Through practices like fasting and conservation, her work uplifts water…
In this episode of Water Street Questions, Travis Loop hits the streets outside the Reservoir Center in Washington, D.C. to ask a simple question: How much is your water bill? The most common answer? “I don’t know.” With rent-included utilities and autopay on the rise, many people are disconnected from…
Many frontline communities face environmental challenges with few resources and little recognition. One solution is to build culturally grounded, community-led movements for environmental justice. In this episode, Huda Alkaff, Founder and Director of Wisconsin Green Muslims, shares how she has spent over two decades weaving together faith, ecology, and grassroots…
Funding Great Lakes Restoration Initiative has powered over 8,100 environmental projects—and its future is now in Congress’s hands. Mayor Shawyn Patterson-Howard is calling for reauthorization and renewed investment over the next five years, warning that failure to act could jeopardize $440 billion in U.S. economic output tied to the region.…
What happens when federal water funding is stalled? For Benton Harbor, it means delayed upgrades to the filtration plant, stunted riverfront development, and communities still waiting for clean water. Mayor Marcus Muhammad says over $100 million was allocated to his city-transforming water infrastructure, housing, and Ox Creek cleanup. But when…