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

Fracking Researchers Under Pressure

Senior Fellow Rob Jackson (Earth Sciences) discusses his career studying the politically charged subject of "fracking."
January 30, 2015 - By Paul Voosen, The Chronicle of Higher Education

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Restoring Threatened Mussels To Freshwater Could Cut E. Coli Contamination

Cites research findings by Senior Woods Fellow Alexandria Boehm (Engineering), Senior Woods Fellow Richard Luthy (Engineering), and Niveen Ismail, a...
January 29, 2015 - By Puneet Kollipara, Chemical & Engineering News

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Bill Gates Raises A Glass To (And Of) Water Made From Poop

Senior Fellow Dick Luthy (Engineering) discusses how the Janicki Omniprocessor, a new machine that can quickly turn human waste into clean drinking...
January 10, 2015 - By Linda Poon, NPR

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These two states had the same basic information about fracking. They made very different decisions

Senior Fellow Rob Jackson (Environmental Earth System Science) discusses factors that may have influenced decisions about banning fracking.
December 22, 2014 - By Chris Mooney, Washington Post

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