I promised one of my kids (Yes, Jill, that's what you are now as far as I'm concerned) that I would write a diary on the subject of clean water.
This is something that has concerned me greatly for years now - I notice articles and TV programs on the subject of water now the way I have registered material on archaeology since I was 8 and somebody told me what archaeologists did. I am not a professional in either field, but I am a concerned amateur, and have learned a few things over the years.
On the subject of clean water, one thing I've learned is that a lot of the available material is in textbooks - which means expensive. Another thing I've learned is that a lot of the rest of the available material is obscure. Which means if you don't know where to look, you won't find it.
Here's one good place to start looking: http://www.islandpress.com/
Since this is the first pass, and I will mostly be displaying my ignorance, my plan is to mention books that are available on various aspects of the subject. I'm providing links to Amazon, though I actually found these books at Powells.
Here's one that would be good for middle schools and high schools - an entry in the National Geographic Investigates series. Not a Drop to Drink: Water for a Thirsty World. This includes a truly impressive chapter on "Supply and Demand" - of course, I may have been impressed because there's a picture of a PlayPump - where the power to pump water is supplied by children playing on a merry-go-round (this was a project I donated to through Global Giving a couple of years ago).
Another one that would be as useful in schools as at home is Water Stewardship: A 30 Day Program to Protect and Conserve Our Water Resources. It's basically a workbook. It actually has thirty-two 1- or 2-page chapters with paragraphs entitled: "Why Act?"; "Water Action"; "Materials"; "Time"; "Benefits"; and, occasionally, just before "Benefits", "Resources" - which is links where you can get more information. Scattered throughout - though mostly at the back - are worksheets that can be copied for use, and there's a section in the back on starting what's called a "Neighborhood Livability Team". A workbook.
While I was on Amazon, I searched the term "Water Rights". There were 63,452 different entries found, so I refined the search a little. When I added "resident", there were 141 entries listed. When I used "landowner", there were 175.
Use "Water Rights Indian" and you get 679 (one of which, at least when I was looking, was a cookbook for South India - the logic of search engines escapes me). Here's a sample: American Indian Water Rights and the Limits of Law.
Because of remarks passed occasionally on Street Prophets about diaries posted on DailyKos, I used "Palestine": 74; "Israel": 158; "Israel/Palestine": 62. Here's one of them for an example: Water, Power and Politics in the Middle East: The Other Israel-Palestine Conflict; and another, Israel/Palestine: How to End the War of 1948, 2nd ed.
This one following is fairly basic, but also useful. I found it in the Multnomah County library and plan to re-read it soon. Not a Drop to Drink: America's Water Crisis (and What You Can Do). Here's another fairly basic one: Clean Water: An Introduction to Water Quality and Pollution Control. And another: The Drinking Water Book: How to Eliminate Harmful Toxins from Your Water. Different takes on the problem - the last being written for what the individual can do for his or her own self and family.
The following list should give some idea of how widespread water problems are:
Water, Culture, and Power: Local Struggles In A Global Context;
Water War in the Klamath Basin: Macho Law, Combat Biology, and Dirty Politics;
Water: A Shared Responsibilty (United Nations World Water Development Report);
Understanding Water Rights and Conflicts;
Managing and Transforming Water Conflicts (International Hydrology Series);
World Water Actions: Making Water Flow for All
And these final two, I fully expect to scare the bejeebers out of me when I get a chance to read them:
Water Follies: Groundwater Pumping And The Fate Of America's Fresh Waters;
The Last Taboo: Opening the Door on the Global Sanitation Crisis.
End Part 1. I'll be back with more actual details on some aspect of this when I have got through a few of these books, and whatever material they lead me to online.