Water scarcity affects every continent on our planet.
Nearly 1/3 of people live in water stressed regions.
By 2025, it's likely closer to be 2/3.
I'am Ariana Khan, I'm an organizer and an environmental scientist.
See it or not, water scarcity is impacting you right now.
The food you eat, the power in your home,
and even the brands you use everyday
are all part of a complicated ecosystem that runs on water.
Like the rest of us, water is essential for P&G,
its needed to make all and use most of their products.
That's why they help to build a water-positive future,
and sending me on a journey to learn more about the ripple effect
of good ecosystems, people and communities
that come from the projects they're supporting.
Now it's our turn to take care of this river.
Restoration is our religion.
It's out belief system.
It's who we are, it's why
as Yurok we believe that without humans being part of the world around us
the world itself is our of balance.
We believe we belong here.
That human belong here on Earth and our role
Is to create a balance in the ecosystems we live in.
We've seen what a hundred years of extraction has done to this planet,
and we think that next hundred years should be built on giving back to it.
So what is the specific purpose of slough that we are standing by?
One of the primary goals is habitat for juvenile winter-run Chinook.
Basically, it's a baby-fish nursery.
The winter-run Chinook salmon are endangered here in California
and now with the dams, there's just not enough habitat for the salmon.
Because the mainstream is kinda of a hostile environment for baby-fish
we need to create this side channel habitat so that they can
rear here until they're ready to go out to the ocean.
We did, I think about two miles of work, starting here and going up.
That's about thirty acres of restoration we did.
So, we're down here today checking on the repairing work.
Wait, hold on, what is riparian habitat?
Riparian habitat refers to
the plant community that lives next to the river.
And..so what we do today since after the Yuroks reset the channel,
we go in with the keystone species restoration.
Would you like to plant a willow? Yes!
Lots of these species help to, you know, maintain the integrity of the channel,
willows especially will help shade the water, so that when the salmon
came up that they can find cool water for shade.
And they'll actually bring up the water table
and help to retain the water in here.
We've planted fifty-six species in this area,
which is also really important, because biodiversity
is kinda of ecological insurance policy.
This is the largest constructed channel habitat
for juvenile salmon if its kind on the Sacramento river,
there's a lot of challenges that you run into
on a project this big that, you don't know are coming at the onset.
Underground utilities, bridge reinforcement project,
early rains dewatering the slough,
and now we are dealing with beaver dams, and you know, a low water year
making it difficult for us to establish the plantings.
So, corporate partner funding and P&G funding was really important,
and became ever more so critical
as the project went on, to bridge funding gaps that you don't know
are gonna happen at the onset of a project like this.
What does success look like for this project?
As soon as we connected the channel, as soon as the water starting flowing
there were baby salmon in here.
So, you know, we consider that a success.
The East Sand Slough showed me that while
bringing more water into the ecosystem can seem simple,
it has interconnected benefits from from plants to fish,
even at this early stage.
But I wanted to know how a project like this can actually start
addressing the water crisis on a much larger scale.
There are a series of projects along the Sacramento river,
including the Brayton Restoration Project
that has been established over the past decade.
So I went to check one out.
John Cain, I'm the Conservation Director with River Partners
ad we're here on the banks of the Sacramento river.
This is 1/3 of the water supply of the cities in
California comes from the Sacramento river.
When the settlers first came to California, the Sacramento river
overflow its banks every year and flood vast areas,
we used to call it an inland sea.
So that didn't workout very well for early farmers after the gold rush
and they started building these levees.
And that was good for agriculture but it was really a problem for
fish and wildlife, overtime.
So it seems the riparian ecosystem, like restoration here,
has holistic benefits,
what is the particular goal of this property?
This property that we are at, we like to call it String of Pearls,
It's five different properties, being marginal agricultural land,
along the Sacramento river,
to restore them for habitat, for birds and fish,
and also to reduce the flood risk to the neighboring community of Colusa.
River Partners is really dependent on private contributors,
Procter&Gamble has played a key part in funding our Brayton Project
which is the most upstream project.
What's happening at the Brayton Project?
The Brayton Project is very similar to where we are here,
it used to be a walnut orchard, the walnut orchard was no longer viable
because it was getting flooded,
and so we replaced the walnut orchard with native vegetation.
Ok, if you wanna get in front first,
ok, whichever doesn't make me steer.
How does this project facilitate water conservation?
The first thing is, generally the land that we are buying along the river
and restoring to native habitat,
is irrigated agriculture.
And so we stop the irrigation on the property, and we replace the
irrigated crops with native vegetation that use less water.
Right away we reduce what's called the evaporative demand for water.
Another thing that the projects do for water is,
groundwater recharge.
As we have more fluctuating climate,
we can expect more cycles of drought and flood.
And so during flood times,
we have more room for the river to spread out and recharge the ground water,
and then during drought times we have
more groundwater banked for use by the farmers.
So I think there's the realization that these projects
provide benefits for everyone in the community.
Do you think that people having access to the nature here
is a point of hope?
I definitely know that seeing our restoration projects
is a point of hope,
because it grown so quickly.
One project we did twenty years ago is now a forest, a hundred feet tall.
But water doesn't just support river banks, animals and recreation,
about 70% of the world's water goes into agriculture.
My grandparents are farmers and I know that growing crops
it's all about irrigation.
So I wanted to talk to some people who have been working with the water
and the land, for generations,
to get their take on how to protect their resources,
and their community, at the same time.
Without water all of this farming that you see here,
it really wouldn't be possible.
We really rely on the Colorado river.
It's the life blood of this entire valley so try
to account for every single drop of it, when we can.
My name is Josh Moore, I'm the General Farm Manager here at
CRIT Farms on the Colorado River Indian Reservation.
I am native to the area, I am member of the tribe,
my heritage, I am Hopi, Mojave and Chemehuevi.
So you have a very deep connection to the land?
Yeah, yeah, so it's very interesting,
almost on both sides of my family,
I had grandfathers, worked this valley for generations.
I grew up here on the reservation, I interned at this farm in college,
and luckily I had the opportunity to come back and now I manage the farm.
What we are going to do it we are going to walk down this line right here
and you'll see there's the turnout gate there
we'll make sure that each of them are shut.
So that way when we put water in the system,
water stops in this canal before it goes out into the field.
Alright. And how big is this farm?
It's a pretty large farm.
All together in Arizona and California, I'm responsible for about 27.000 acres.
Right now, you know, we realize that,
this tradition of flood irrigation that we've used here,
Is something that we can't do for a lot longer, and so here on CRIT farms
we're working on looking for alternative methods and technologies
to help us kind of turnaway from that.
So we can survive for more generations, as farmers.
Actually a lot of fungi. Nice.
What are we looking at here?
So, this is an example
of what you'd probably see in 70% of this valley,
this is an alfa-alfa field.
And I think this does a good visualization of showing you,
that almost of this land here is under flood irrigation.
We're working on trying to
upgrade our irrigation systems to be far more efficient,
and specifically only provide the water directly
to the plants where they need it.
It's a microgravity drip irrigation system.
This system is cool because it's cost-effective, and you know,
can be utilized worldwide, wherever there's arid lands.
So we are doing this as a pilot project.
In the context of the local communities and the tribes here,
why is this project exciting?
I mean it's innovative as heck, but why is it exciting?
The exciting this is, there's a lot of benefit and proven and documented
benefit to utilizing drip irrigation.
Some study show that by converting to drip irrigation,
you can increase your yield,
and so we're really excited about the opportunity to kind of
bring this smart farming technology, not just to this field, but,
as many as of our fields as we can economically do.
This project was born out of a goodwill effort
to bring in this irrigation change project,
and one of our big partners is
Bonneville Environmental Foundation
who're helping not only match funds but kind of reinforce and
strengthen the work that we are doing on our system improvements here.
The paradigm of innovation just keeps rolling, it's awesome,
and the biggest thing is, it's going to take so many different solutions
to keep this valley in production.
I'm excited that I get to be a part of that.
While clearly, it takes a lot of people to make these projects happen,
I still want to know what P&Gs actual role is,
on the projects that ripples of good.
And why they were willing to send me on this journey, in the first place.
I'm Shannon Quin, I'm the Global Water Stewardship Leader for P&G
and we're here to talk about water today,
and the challenges and the solutions that we are working towards.
I'm Todd Reeve, I'm the CEO of the Bonneville Environmental Foundation
and we work with many companies like Procter&Gamble,
helping them connect to water solutions and partners on the ground
to help achieve impacts and benefits for communities and wildlife.
So, what does a corporation have to do with water?
Especially a corporation like P&G?
For Procter&Gamble, water is essential.
We need it to manufacture our products and then people need
water to use our products at home.
So it's really essential that we protect it,
and we protect it for the people who need our products,
but also for the wildlife, and the environment, and others.
Coming from a generation dealing with the brunt of climate crisis,
and evil practices from corporations,
we are a little skeptical to hear when corporations step in
for solutions, so,
what are you guys actually doing?
Yeah, that's a great question,
Procter&Gamble has a comprehensive strategy to address
water across the lifecycle of our products.
We are focusing on eighteen watersheds, we really looked out
where we were having and impact but could also have the biggest
positive impact, and then within each of those basins,
we're working on developing a portfolio of projects,
that really address the challenges that we found there.
We really want to work to not only restore water through these projects,
but have these amazing benefits come from them,
benefits to community, to wildlife, to people.
We're also looking at inside of the four walls of our manufacturing plants,
what is it that we can do to reduce water use and improve efficiency.
And then we're also working on moving from just, you know, 500 liters
of water being used in homes on average per day,
to how is that, how do we make that fifty liters per day?
And we do that with..in partnership with
others in the 50 liter Home coalition.
And one thing that's really unique is the Cascade brand,
that came in early and saw an opportunity,
as they were rethinking some of their strategies,
about how they reduce water use in the home.
At the same time participating in projects
with the Colorado Indian Tribes, and in other states as well.
And so a really unique example of a brand stepping and generating
influence around water conservation in the home while at the same time
partnering with a tribe, partnering with other non-profit groups,
to help support projects on the ground, that are conserving water,
restoring water, for the environment, for communities.
Why do you need a brand at the scale of P&G to do this sort of work?
Bringing companies to the table on these water issues,
is something that didn't happen historically,
and if you talk to water managers and water agencies, the'll say,
companies weren't at the table, right, when we were discussing water.
And I think it is incredibly powerful component of this work
when these large, very well-known companies,
come in and start participating, right?
Everybody starts paying attention, whether it's a governor,
or a water agency or a community.
That did not exist fifty years ago.
Procter&Gamble serves five billion people every single day,
using our products, we're in their homes, you know, we're
like intimately connected with them
and so we have, I think, build this trust and have it at the scale
that we are able to get these messages out
and so that scale allows us to have that larger impact.
I mean, personally I agree with that understanding the nuances
of how solutions come about, but I think in our mind, you know
like, we inherited this world,
and we inherited the water crisis,
and a lot of big entities were responsible for that, before you know..
So.. so I think, what will resonate with us
is when that messaging ripples into actions
and we see that we can also hold different entities like accountable
I mean, I also think like, you know, you have, you're the next fifty years,
right, like you're going to also help, like, keep moving us in the
direction that's needed to solve the problem, and, just
being open-minded and making sure that the people will be impacted
or who could contribute at the table,
and that includes people that you might not agree with.
It goes for both parties, like, you guys,
are not going to agree with everything that we say,
and, you know, we're totally here for the fight.
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah, and I think also, just like continuing to be that voice, because
companies will hear you, especially that collective,
you'll start to drive the change,
but, I mean I am just curious like, what would, what do you think
you're going to tell your friends, you know, after this journey
you've gone on, and what you've seen.
Aw well, the climate crisis and this water crisis is overwhelming,
you know, there are, there are solutions that are being
scaled in a way that is going to
continuously improve,
and that we've already like, started on that journey.
Josh told me that his people had been farming this land for generations
and to hear the true ripple effect on the Colorado River Indian Tribes
and surrounding communities,
he said, that there's one more person I have to meet.
[Mojave language]
Amelia Flores
[Mojave language]
Readings in Mojave,
We are sitting, on the Colorado River.
And what is your relationship to this river?
The river is to sustain us,
and the river is tied to us through our
culture and our spiritual beliefs.
And we are part of the river, and we are part of the land.
Water rights are essentially, what the tribes here
are entitled to, in order to survive.
Am I correct? Yes.
The Colorado River Indian Tribes has the highest priority
and the oldest senior water rights in the lower basin of Arizona.
Our allocation of water, which is over 790 acre feet of water,
that we can divert onto our lands, that is what we have today.
And what we are entitled to, and that's our water rights.
Can you elaborate a bit more, like how
water rights affects the way of life for the communities here?
We're farmers, we've always been farmers.
And we also lease our lands out to non-tribal farmers,
and we have a handful of tribal farmers.
When we lease our land, along with that comes the availability
of the water for the crops.
And with the land lease money, it goes to our general fund,
so, the general fund, goes to the services of our people.
The river has always taken care of the people.
Sustaining the life of the Mojave people.
Sustaining the life of the Chemehuevi, the Hopi and Navajo.
It's part of our sovereignty as Colorado River Indian Tribes.
So now, it's our turn to take care of this river.
I've learned that water affects everything, from micro to the macro
it affects ecosystems, it affects the soil,
and it affects indigenous people as other communities allround.