Freshwater

Finding answers to the world’s pressing water supply and access challenges requires crossing disciplines and exploring a wide range of approaches. Stanford researchers are working together on sustainable solutions ranging from a low-cost water pump chlorinator to a high-tech, multi-million-dollar wastewater resource recovery center. They also are looking at water supply issues from a law and public policy standpoint, providing guidance to decision-makers through knowledge-based tools such as an interactive website illustrating California’s major groundwater challenges and potential solutions. To advance these and other innovative freshwater solutions, Woods supports the Global Freshwater Initiative, which develops strategies to promote the long-term viability of freshwater supplies; the Water, Health & Development Program, which identifies ways to improve and increase the sustainability of water supply and sanitation service delivery; and the Water in the West Program, which addresses multiple dimensions of realistic, integrated solutions to the American West’s water challenges. Read on for examples of work Woods-affiliated researchers are doing to ensure adequate supply and access to safe water for billions of people.

In The News

California Drought Gives 'Toilet to Tap' a New Level of Attention

Quotes Janny Choy, Research Analyst with the Water in the West program, on the practicality of expanding recycled water programs in drought-stricken...
April 15, 2015 - By Jeff Daniels, CNBC

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Water Officials Uncertain About Just How Tough to Get With Users

Newsha Ajami, director of urban water policy at Water in the West, states that adopting tiered pricing and levying fines for water waste are probably...
April 10, 2015 - By Matt Stevens, Taylor Goldstein, and Bettina Boxall, LA Times

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How California Can Survive the Drought

Leon Szeptycki, Woods professor of the practice and executive director of the Water in the West program, explains maintaining California's ...
April 6, 2015 - By Danielle Venton, Nature

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No, California Won’t Run Out of Water in a Year

Leon Szeptycki, Woods professor of the practice and executive director of the Water in the West program, discusses California's water supply
March 20, 2015 - By Tony Barboza, Los Angeles Times

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