Just over a quarter of people on the planet live in water stressed countries. And our increasing demands for water as well as climate change is putting even more pressure on this finite resource. We take a look at how Indian farmers are growing crops with a device that stores rain underground. Plus how a test farm in the US uses a special clay liquid to grow vegetables in the desert. Finally we visit a project in Cyprus that could help coastal cities clean and reuse their wastewater in a more eco-friendly way. Presenter: Myra Anubi Producer/reporter: Claire Bates US reporter: Anthony Wallace Series Producer: Jon Bithrey Editor: Tom Bigwood Sound Mix: Andrew Mills (Image: Biplab Paul demonstrating his bhungroo device in Gujarat, India, Biplab Paul)
People Fixing.
People Fixing the World.
This is People Fixing the World from the BBC World Service with me, Mayra Anubi.
Now, across the world, people are thirsty for change, and I'm here to quench that thirst with new ideas that are making our world a better place.
Speaking about thirst, this week it's all about water.
We'll sit under some palm trees in the U.S.
visit toilets in Cyprus, and go to India to find out what a bungaroo is.
As a young girl, I remember moments when we didn't have water at home.
And almost every Saturday morning, my whole family would go up and down flights of stairs with big jerry cans to fetch clean water from a local supplier.
As much as I hated it then, I know now that we were lucky because at least we had some access to clean water.
Conflict, poor infrastructure, climate change, all of these are making it harder for people to get this resource.
Plus, the demand for it is also high because of, well, agriculture.
Farming alone uses 70% of the world's fresh water supply.
So today we're finding out about ways to use water more efficiently in farming.
To start us off, our reporter, Anthony Wallace went to a state in the southwest of the US Called Arizona to find out about technique that apparently halved the water needed to grow fruit trees.
I'm standing in a date farm in Yuma, Arizona.
We have neat rows of date palms, pretty tall.
It's almost like a forest in here.
Pretty shady, which is good because it's starting to get hot here.
The farm is on a mesa, which is a flat, elevated area.