UN-SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation

Hazel Creek’s Impossible Garden In Pennsylvania’s Hazel Creek Mine, 172 bird species now thrive where barren ground once stood, including endangered golden-winged warblers with breeding populations12. Indiana bats, listed as endangered since 1967, have established maternal colonies in the abandoned mine shafts1. Eastern brook trout swim in streams that once ran orange with acid drainage. This is not a story about hope in the abstract. It is documented ecological recovery on land that industrial extraction left for dead. ...

Nestlé paid just $200 per year to extract water in Michigan while generating $340 million in revenue12. That’s not a typo—a multinational corporation paid less than what many Americans spend on a single month of bottled water to drain millions of gallons from public resources. This extreme example reveals a deeper crisis. The bottled water industry generates over $340 billion annually while 2.1 billion people lack safely managed drinking water access34567. Corporations charge consumers 2,000 to 3,300 times more than tap water costs, extracting extraordinary profits from what should be a universally accessible public good89. ...

One copper mine’s decision will secure drinking water for one million people by 2030. Los Bronces mine in Chile is ending all freshwater withdrawals, freeing between 14.7 and 43.2 million liters daily for communities in one of the world’s most water-stressed regions. This commitment represents the mining industry’s first large-scale attempt to operate entirely on desalinated seawater in a megadrought zone. ...

Our Double-Edged Nitrogen Sword Nitrogen exists as a profound duality in Earth’s systems. Its inert atmospheric form ($N_2$) constitutes the most abundant gas surrounding the planet, serving as an invisible backdrop to existence. When converted into reactive forms through fixation processes, nitrogen transforms into a fundamental building block for proteins and DNA, becoming the engine of agricultural productivity that sustains billions of people. ...

Historical Evolution of Water Security Understanding The understanding of water security has evolved significantly over time, particularly in conjunction with the growing awareness of climate change. Historically, water management often focused on ensuring supply for specific sectors like agriculture or urban consumption, often through large-scale infrastructure projects such as dams and irrigation systems1. However, the late 20th and early 21st centuries saw a broadening of the concept of “water security” to encompass not just quantity but also quality, ecosystem health, and the equitable distribution of water resources23. ...