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<ul class="summary-list"><li>California has spent decades battling droughts and water insecurity.</li><li>Startups like Epic Cleantec are innovating with on-site water reuse.</li></ul>Despite enduring droughts for <a target="_blank" href="https://ca.water.usgs.gov/california-drought/california-drought-runoff.html">much of the past 15 years</a>, California continues to lead the nation in <a target="_blank" href="https://www.usgs.gov/special-topics/water-science-school/science/water-qa-which-states-use-most-water">water consumption</a>.During these <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/california-drought-could-impact-agriculture-tourism-wildlife-2021-6">dry periods</a>, some of the state's local governments began to look for ways to <a target="_blank" href="https://andthewest.stanford.edu/2023/in-times-of-scarcity-californias-best-new-source-of-water-reuse/">diversify their water supplies</a> away from lengthy pipelines and expensive, out-of-state sources.In 2012, San Francisco's Public Utilities Commission began developing the Onsite Water Reuse Program to investigate whether water reuse, also known as water recycling, in buildings could be a solution to California's water problem."There weren't any state or national regulations," Paula Kehoe, the director of water resources at the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, told Business Insider. Kehoe and her team created a permitting program to streamline the adoption of on-site water-reuse systems developed by private businesses.As the US faces a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/articles/2023/09/25/more-federal-funding-needed-to-improve-drinking-water-epa-study-finds#:~:text=Water%20utilities%20throughout%20the%20United,Environmental%20Protection%20Agency%20(EPA).">$625 billion cost to address the nation's need to repair drinking- and clean-water infrastructure</a>, on-site water reuse is quickly becoming a strong alternative to the historically slow and expensive process of building large water-recycling plants.With droughts predicted to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://apnews.com/article/california-droughts-gavin-newsom-recycling-c22de8f25b9d6a2bf69277a7185abc0f">reduce California's water supply by 10%</a> over the next 20 years, the success of these systems could lay the foundation for how the state sources its water over several decades.<h2 id="8b14ae19-3316-4bcf-9798-263a2b1e1e25">Silicon Valley is investing in on-site water recycling</h2>In 2015, during the height of California's drought and after three years of development, San Francisco unveiled the Onsite Water Reuse Program requiring all new buildings of 250,000 square feet or more to install an on-site water-treatment system for nonpotable uses, a cap that was lowered to 100,000 square feet in 2021.The city's tech background and proximity to Silicon Valley gave some <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gradiant-water-startup-helps-businesses-recycle-water-2023-7">startups an opportunity</a> to enter the market. In 2019, Epic Cleantec, a maker of on-site water-reuse systems, emerged to meet the necessary demand for new large buildings.Aaron Tartakovsky, Epic Cleantec's cofounder and CEO, developed the company to address the water-reuse needs of large city buildings.He told BI he took inspiration from the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/solar-careers-in-demand-workforce-shortage-2024-7">solar industry</a>, which he said had turned to local installation projects after prioritizing large-scale solar-panel farms. "Can we do the same thing for water and wastewater?" Tartakovsky said. "Can this be water's solar moment?"<div type="image" title="Aaron Tartovsky, founder of epic cleantec" height="2268" width="3024" msid="111870886" hostid="261" sizebytes="137524"></div>Epic Cleantec's on-site systems can recycle building gray water for nonpotable uses, including toilet flushing and irrigation, through their filtration and disinfection process. The company's systems also incorporate an energy-saving mechanism to limit the amount of wasted heat."We have big tanks in these buildings that are collecting all this heated wastewater," Tartakovsky said. "Rather than just sending all that heat away, we are using heat exchangers to take all of that energy from the water and then to reuse that energy within the building."Epic Cleantec has six active projects in California, including a recent system in San Francisco's Salesforce Tower that the company says is the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://epiccleantec.com/projects/salesforce">largest on-site water-reuse system in a US commercial high-rise</a>.The company has also entered the hotel sector with a recycling system in the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Beverly Hills. Recycled water is being used for on-site irrigation.In a drought-conscious state, Tartakovsky said the on-site recycling systems had become more appealing to tenants looking for ways to contribute to the state's water-conservation mindset.The adoption of on-site water reuse can also be a sensible decision for developers. "They're not working with us just because it's a nice thing to do and it's good for the planet," he said. "They're doing it because it makes business sense — it saves them a lot of money to incorporate technologies like ours into these projects."<h2 id="075e558b-3852-4981-bc08-a5e2095ce6fb">Water reuse to overcome hurdles</h2>While large plants and on-site water systems in major buildings have been California's <a target="_blank" href="https://andthewest.stanford.edu/2023/in-times-of-scarcity-californias-best-new-source-of-water-reuse/">more established methods</a> of water reuse, the state's biggest hurdle is retrofitting systems for existing buildings.As part of San Francisco's water-recycling initiative, the city published a list of 30 vendors that provide on-site systems that can be installed in existing buildings and new constructions to collect different types of water, including rainwater, gray water, and black water.While most of the vendors offer reuse systems and water management for new constructions, some companies, such as <a target="_blank" href="https://www.bioclere.co.uk/bioclere.php">Bioclere</a>, Phoenix's <a target="_blank" href="https://dewater.com/markets/aquacell-water-recycling/">Aquacell</a>, and <a target="_blank" href="https://innovatreat.com/">Innovatreat</a>, make systems designed to be retrofitted into existing buildings and community infrastructure.<div type="image" title="Epic Cleantec One Water system installed" height="2626" width="1751" msid="111870887" hostid="261" sizebytes="125772"></div>Erik Porse, the director and associate cooperative extension specialist at the California Institute for Water Resources, told BI these retrofits are more difficult to install because of the limitations of size and existing water pipes. "If you have a larger facility, like more area, then you can think about on-site treatment of some sort," he said. "But if you're kind of working in an existing building, like a small building, it can be kind of tough to integrate in lots of treatments."California's <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/california-central-valley-farms-groundwater-dought-2023-7">agriculture sector</a> also relies on water-reuse systems for nonpotable water — a key part of crop irrigation. Since the state has the highest agricultural output in the country, recycled water is important for maintaining crops, especially in times of drought. California is the leader in <a target="_blank" href="https://watereuse.org/educate/water-reuse-101/agricultural-reuse/">using reused water for agriculture</a> across the US.However, the extent to which recycled water is used in agriculture depends on a state's guidelines, many of which are underdeveloped. For example, Iowa is one of the highest producers of crops but does not have any regulations for the use of reused water in agriculture. Instead, the state is experimenting with <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cals.iastate.edu/inrc/news/2024/new-report-shares-latest-research-potential-ag-drainage-water-recycling">drainage-water recycling</a>, or collecting water from farming, and local infrastructure that captures used drainage and rainfall for reuse in on-site irrigation.Nonpotable water can also help in one of the country's newest sources of water loss: data centers. States like <a target="_blank" href="https://www.newsweek.com/why-ai-so-thirsty-data-centers-use-massive-amounts-water-1882374">Iowa</a> and <a target="_blank" href="https://grist.org/technology/surging-demand-data-guzzling-water-ai/">Virginia</a> have seen massive strains on their <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-data-energy-centers-water-energy-land-2023-10">water supplies</a> due to the increased construction of these facilities. "Those data centers use huge amounts of water to cool themselves," Tartakovsky said.Tartakovsky hopes Epic Cleantec's recent expansions to states such as Texas, Florida, and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hawaii-water-crisis-climate-change/">Hawaii</a> can help in ways beyond water scarcity. "A lot of people think you only need it in the Western states, but in places like the East Coast, a lot of times what they have is wastewater-infrastructure issues," he said. "We have pipes and sewers that were put in place anywhere from 30 to 100 years ago."<h2 id="8d5654cd-d3b7-4f2e-89c8-d5d9a678cdde">Rethinking our relationship with water</h2>To help promote the safety of its recycled water, Epic Cleantec partnered with a brewery near San Francisco, Devil's Canyon Brewing Co., to make a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/half-moon-bay-brewery-california-recycled-wastewater-nasa-astronauts-2023-7">safe-to-drink beer</a> out of its nonpotable water. The beer could not be sold commercially since the state has not cleared nonpotable water for drinking, but Tartakovsky credits the campaign with highlighting the company's purification process.Other states could learn from the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.gov.ca.gov/2022/04/14/state-expands-save-our-water-public-awareness-campaign-as-drought-intensifies/">public-awareness campaigns</a> California has promoted for several decades to help residents embrace water reuse. During times of drought, the state has encouraged water conservation and water recycling, such as the use of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.latimes.com/lifestyle/story/2022-06-21/gardening-with-recycled-water">recycled water for plants</a>. "We've seen a pretty big evolution in California cities, especially in Southern California, that folks understand that water reuse is a treatment technology that we use in the state, and it's important, and it provides supply resilience," Porse said.In Texas, a fellow drought-prone state, the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://takecareoftexas.org/water">Take Care of Texas </a>campaign similarly encourages community support for water conservation so the state can survive in times of water scarcity.Porse told BI that in California as public support grows, so will government regulations. In 2023, California made progress toward establishing recycled water for <a target="_blank" href="https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/press_room/press_releases/2023/pr20231219-dpr-regulations-adoption.pdf">direct potable reuse</a> and allowing recycled water to be used in the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/california-drinking-toilet-water-sewage-waste-drought-climate-crisis-solution-2023-12">state's drinking-water supply</a>.For Kehoe, the key to creating stronger water infrastructure is a partnership between communities that endures beyond times of scarcity."We always talk about water conservation as a way of life," Kehoe said. "It's not just during the drought."

Droughts are threatening California's water supply. The state is racing to save what's left. 

Union Finance Minister <keyword id="19916618" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="Nirmala-Sitharaman" source="keywords">Nirmala Sitharaman</keyword> highlighted India's significant progress in electrification, <keyword id="23692737" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="water-accessibility" source="keywords">water accessibility</keyword>, and <keyword id="20879840" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="economic-empowerment" source="keywords">economic empowerment</keyword> during a fireside chat with John J Hamre, President and CEO of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), in Washington, DC. Highlighting the progress made in <keyword id="23003732" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="rural-electrification" source="keywords">rural electrification</keyword>, <keyword id="19916494" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="sitharaman" source="keywords">Sitharaman</keyword> highlighted that every village in India now has access to electricity. She noted that in 2014, many villages across India, including those near state capitals, lacked even basic infrastructure for electrification. She said "I don't think any village in India is unelectrified today. Households have received the connections. So, if I remember the situation in 2014, there were still many villages in many parts of India, some even very close to the state capital, provincial headquarters, without even a pole to receive the electric wires. Now, all that has been overcome. Houses have got their electricity." The Finance Minister also discussed the <keyword id="19971121" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Jal-Jeevan-Mission" source="keywords">Jal Jeevan Mission</keyword>, a program initiated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to provide tap water connections to every household. She explained, "Earlier, one tap water connection was provided to a village, from where everyone would take water to their home. But under the 'Jal Jeevan Mission,' each and every house gets a tap water connection." Sitharaman emphasized the positive impact of this initiative on health, sanitation, and convenience for millions of Indian families. Turning to the economic empowerment of <keyword id="20101496" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="municipalities" source="keywords">municipalities</keyword> and urban centers, Sitharaman noted that these local governments are receiving increased autonomy and financial support. She explained that municipalities receive a portion of taxes collected by the central government, along with additional funds based on the Finance Commission's recommendations. "Over and above, today, we are enhancing their capacities to raise resources from the market. Municipalities are a very powerful instrument of economic development and they, on their own, are raising a lot of resources," she added. Sitharaman also expressed confidence in India's economic growth and its appeal to <keyword id="20632552" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="global-investors" source="keywords">global investors</keyword>. "The policies are working, reforms are happening, and they shall continue to happen," she stated, adding that "greater liberalisation of the economy will be there and, in a way, we are accessing newer markets and speaking about the <keyword id="19948184" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Indian-economy" source="keywords">Indian economy</keyword> in more avenues and platforms that will attract more investors." With ongoing reforms and increased global engagement, Sitharaman noted, India is solidifying its position as a significant player on the world stage, expanding its economic reach and inviting foreign investment.

No village in India left without access to electricity, claims FM Nirmala Sitharaman

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Hurricane Helene battered rural mountain towns in North Carolina, a key voting bloc for Trump.</li><li>Some analysts and candidates expect turnout to be lower in the region as people rebuild.</li></ul>Three weeks after Hurricane Helene ravaged western North Carolina, hundreds of roads and bridges <a target="_blank" href="https://www.ncdot.gov/news/press-releases/Pages/2024/2024-10-14-ncdot-hurricane-helene-recovery.aspx">remain damaged or closed</a> and tens of thousands of residents still don't have running water. Many are displaced after losing their homes and businesses, while others are still clearing out muck and debris.With many Helene survivors still in the thick of recovery, especially residents of rural mountain towns, political analysts and candidates told Business Insider they expect turnout to be lower in the state's western region. The <a target="_blank" href="https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/president-general/2024/north-carolina/">latest polls</a> show that former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are neck-and-neck, and North Carolina remains a critical battleground state for either candidate's victory."Voting is not the top priority for a whole lot of people right now," said Chris Cooper, a political science professor at Western Carolina University. "Even among the most committed voters. If they don't have drinkable water, their priorities have shuffled. So I expect voter turnout to be down in the most-affected counties."Cooper said his home was largely spared by Helene, but some family members who live in Asheville temporarily relocated to South Carolina. That includes his dad, who had planned to vote early and in-person but now must request a mail-in ballot.Early voting began in North Carolina on October 17, and <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="c-link" href="https://www.ncsbe.gov/news/press-releases/2024/10/18/north-carolina-sets-turnout-record-first-day-early-voting">state election officials said in-person turnout topped a previous record set in 2020.</a> At the county level, state election officials told BI that comparing this year's numbers to 2020 wouldn't be accurate due to several caveats, including that the absentee-by-mail voting period started two weeks earlier in 2020 than it did this year.The rural mountain areas of North Carolina previously favored Trump. He won North Carolina by less than 75,000 votes in the 2020 presidential race, with strong support in areas outside urban centers. That included 11 of the 13 counties hardest-hit by Helene. The two exceptions were Buncombe County, where Asheville is located, and Watauga County.<div type="image" title="A man stands near a home with a Trump 2024 campaign sign as he coordinates relief in Lake Lure, North Carolina, on October 2, 2024 after Hurricane Helene." height="683" width="1024" msid="114380742" hostid="261" sizebytes="122340"></div>The Democrats aim to flip <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cnn.com/election/2020/results/state/north-carolina">historically red</a> North Carolina, seeing a path in the rapidly growing suburban areas like Charlotte, Raleigh-Durham, and Fayetteville. Harris is trying to win over Black and college educated voters, as well as women who oppose the state's <a target="_blank" href="https://www.plannedparenthood.org/planned-parenthood-south-atlantic/patients/health-care-services/abortion-services/nc-abortion-faqs">restrictive abortion law</a>. But the aftermath of Helene has become a political lightning rod, with Trump attacking the Biden administration's response.<h2 id="b6b2ed09-6d41-465a-9740-c901aa87fc11">Officials say North Carolinians know the importance of voting</h2>The traditional ways to reach people, such as door knocking and social media, aren't as accessible because of the destruction and spotty internet service. This has made it difficult for campaign staff to canvas and combat rumors.Trump has spread disinformation, telling attendees at a campaign rally that Harris stole Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) disaster relief funding and spent it on housing for migrants. He also wrote on <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/113227266617485932">Truth Social</a> that the federal government and Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, were going out of their way to not assist Republican-leaning areas.The Biden administration and some GOP politicians have debunked the claims, including Rep. Chuck Edwards, a Republican who represents North Carolina's 11th district, which was devastated by Helene.Edwards told BI that he's been working around the clock to connect survivors with the resources they need. He <a target="_blank" href="https://edwards.house.gov/media/press-releases/debunking-helene-response-myths">issued a statement on October 8</a>, after being inundated with emails and calls from people upset about unfounded rumors."I was getting calls from people around the country who wanted to send personnel, equipment, and water, but worried it wouldn't make it to the right location because of the rumors," Edwards told BI. "Primarily, that FEMA was confiscating supplies and turning people away. There is absolutely no truth to that."Edwards added that even though folks are busy putting their lives back together, they understand that an important election is right around the corner. They are motivated to get out and vote for Trump, he said."They remember what our lives were like the day before the storm," Edwards said, pointing to inflation, oil prices, and a crisis at the Southern border.Edwards' competitor, Rep. Caleb Rudow, is a Democrat who represents Buncombe county in the state legislature. He's been canvassing and posting <a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/CalebRudow/status/1846144971256057972">on social media</a>, talking about the importance of this election, particularly after Helene.Rudow said the state needs elected officials who want to solve the climate crisis, which is fueling more intense hurricanes. He also told BI that the relief work by state, local, and federal officials after Helene has shown the power of government in the wake of a disaster.Rudow added that people are resilient, and part of recovery is getting life back to normal. That includes talking about these issues and voting.Even so, people who've lost their homes and loved ones probably aren't thinking about voting, said Bob Phillips, executive director at Common Cause North Carolina, a voter rights group. But it's hard to predict how Helene will affect turnout.North Carolina election officials made emergency changes to expand voting access for residents recovering from the storm."Helene will be a part of this election, and we'll just have to see what the drop off is," Phillips said.Were you impacted by Hurricane Helene and want to share your voting story? Contact cboudreau@businessinsider.com.

Rural North Carolinians are key for Trump's election chances in the swing state. Hurricane Helene upended their lives.

Imagine you're a hedge-fund manager who's trying to gain an edge. To maximize returns, you decide to install the latest technology that allows a computer to interpret the changing winds of the market and make thousands of orders in milliseconds. The program helps boost your fund for a while, but the initial excitement turns to dread as you watch the program go rogue and buy hundreds of millions of shares in less than an hour. Your firm scrambles to stop the trades, but they can't, and suddenly you're facing massive losses, all because of a poorly installed algorithm.Dystopian sounding, right? But this catastrophic scenario isn't some troubling hypothetical about the rising threat of artificial intelligence; it <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/market-trading-issues-knight-capital-tanking-2012-8">actually happened</a> over a decade ago when a coding mistake led to losses of<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/who-is-knight-capital-2012-8#"> $440 million for Knight Capital,</a> eventually <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/knight-capital-will-sell-itself-to-getco-2013-1">leading the firm to sell itself</a> at a massive discount."Artificial intelligence" isn't "the future" — it's just a marketing term for a slightly updated version of the automation that has been ruling our lives for years. Companies have cycled through a series of names to dress up their tech — automation, algorithms, machine learning, and now AI — but ultimately, these systems all boil down to the same idea: handing over decision-making to computers to execute tasks at speeds far faster than a human could. While there's growing fear that a new breed of AI will <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-lonelier-at-work-friends-connect-with-coworkers-2023-12">infect our daily lives</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-radically-reshape-job-market-global-economy-employee-labor-innovation-2023-8">put millions of people out of work</a>, and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-is-guiding-humans-to-a-new-age-of-discovery-2024-2">generally upend society</a>, most people don't realize just how deeply computerized decision-making has wormed its way into every facet of our existence. These systems are based on datasets and the rules that human beings teach them, but whether it's making money in the markets or feeding us the news, more and more of our lives are in the hands of unaccountable digital systems.In many cases, these algorithms have proven useful for society. They've helped eliminate mundane tasks or level the playing field. But increasingly, the algorithms that undergird our digital lives are making questionable decisions that enrich the powerful and wreck the lives of average people. There's no reason to be scared of AI making decisions for you in the future — computers have already been doing so for quite some time.The early internet was a relatively human-curated experience — a disparate collection of web pages that were discoverable only if you knew the address of the site or saw a link to it on another site. That changed in June 1993, when the researcher Matthew Gray created one of the first "web robots," a primitive algorithm designed to "<a target="_blank" href="https://clutejournals.com/index.php/IJMIS/article/download/5799/5877/23158">measure the size of the web</a>." Gray's invention helped create search engines and inspired a league of successors — Jump Station, Excite, Yahoo, and so on. In 1998, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-history-in-photos-2015-10">Stanford students Sergey Brin and Larry Page</a> made the next leap in automating the internet when they published an academic paper about a "<a target="_blank" href="http://infolab.stanford.edu/pub/papers/google.pdf">large-scale hypertext web search engine</a>" called Google. The paper detailed how their algorithm "PageRank" judged the importance of a web result based on a user's query, serving up the most relevant site based on how many other websites linked to it — which made a lot of sense on a much smaller and more innocent internet. Nearly three decades after the founding of Google, the internet has only gotten more automated. This has come with plenty of benefits for average people — recommendations on Spotify and Netflix help us find new art, robo-investors can help grow a nest egg at a low cost, and industrial applications like the robotics used to manufacture many modern vehicles have made our economy more efficient. Somewhere along the way, however, the tech industry tipped over from helpfully automating the jobs that slowed down our lives to distorting society by surrendering crucial decisions to computers.In many ways, the original Google paper feels like a dark warning. It argues that advertising-funded search engines would be "inherently biased" toward those advertisers. It's probably no surprise then that researchers have found that by <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/search-web-email-google-streaming-online-shopping-broken-2022-4">prioritizing ad dollars</a> over useful results, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-search-getting-worse-spam-affiliate-links-duckduckgo-bing-2024-1">Google's algorithm is getting worse</a>, degrading a crucial source of information for over 5 billion people. And it's not just search engines. Revenue-focused algorithms behind networks like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter have learned how to feed users a steady stream of upsetting or enraging content to goose user engagement. As human control diminished, the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/state-attorneys-general-investigate-tiktok-childrens-mental-health-2022-3">real-world consequences of these algorithms</a> have piled up: <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-internal-report-shows-instagram-bad-for-teens-2021-9">Instagram's algorithm</a> has been linked to a mental-health crisis in teenage girls. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/twitter-says-algorithm-biased-toward-right-wing-politicians-conservatives-2021-10">Twitter admitted that its tech </a>tended to amplify tweets from right-wing politicians, influencers, and news sources, and it's only grown worse since <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-x-content-moderation-polices-california-law-ab587-2023-12">Elon Musk bought the site</a>. Cambridge Analytica used an algorithm to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cambridge-analytica-whistleblower-christopher-wylie-facebook-data-2019-10">trawl Facebook's data to hyper-target millions of people</a> in the run-up to the UK's vote to leave the European Union and the 2016 US presidential election.Algorithms that were supposed to make work easier or employees more productive have helped tilt the economy against blue-collar workers and people of color. Companies <a target="_blank" href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-06-28/fired-by-bot-amazon-turns-to-machine-managers-and-workers-are-losing-out">like Amazon </a>are making <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/work-at-amazon-jobs-performance-reviews-hiring-firing-interviews-warehouses-delivery-drivers">hiring and firing decisions based</a> on the whims of a glorified calculator. Customers are getting the short end of the AI stick, too: <a target="_blank" href="https://themarkup.org/denied/2021/08/25/the-secret-bias-hidden-in-mortgage-approval-algorithms">A 2019 investigation by the Associated Press and The Markup</a> found that algorithms used in making loan decisions were highly biased against people of color, with lenders being 80% more likely to turn down Black applicants than similar white applicants.And these problems carry over into the public sector, poisoning government services with algorithmic biases. The UK government faced a national scandal in 2020 when administrators replaced nearly 40% of students' A-level exams — a crucial test that can determine a student's ability to go to university — <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/student-threatens-legal-action-over-uk-school-results-algorithm-2020-8">with algorithmically chosen grades</a>. The results significantly underscored students from Britain's tuition-free state schools, instead favoring those who went to private schools in affluent areas and throwing the lives of many young people into disarray. A <a target="_blank" href="https://www.politico.eu/article/dutch-scandal-serves-as-a-warning-for-europe-over-risks-of-using-algorithms/">"self-learning" algorithm used by the Dutch tax authority</a> falsely penalized tens of thousands of people for supposedly defrauding the country's childcare system, pushing people into poverty and leading to thousands of children being placed into foster care. In the US, <a target="_blank" href="https://propublica.org/article/machine-bias-risk-assessments-in-criminal-sentencing">ProPublica found in a 2016 investigation</a> that an algorithm used in multiple state court systems to judge how likely somebody was to commit a crime in the future was biased against Black Americans, leading to harsher sentences from judges.Across the public and private sectors, we've handed the keys to a spiderweb of algorithms built with little public insight into how they make their decisions. There is some pushback to this infiltration — the<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ftc-warns-keep-ai-claims-in-check-over-chatgpt-hype-2023-3"> FTC is seeking to regulate</a> how businesses use algorithms, but they've yet to do so meaningfully. And more broadly, it seems that governments are resigned to allowing machines to rule our lives.Much like the proverbial frog boiling in a pot of water, the slow takeover of algorithms has mostly gone unnoticed by the general public. It's easy to miss a small tweak to Instagram's algorithm or even celebrate the tax software that simplifies your filing. But now, thanks to the new wave of "artificial intelligence," people are starting to notice just how hot the water has gotten. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/generative-ai-exaggeration-openai-nvidia-microsoft-chatgpt-jobs-investors-markets-2024-3">Investor-fueled enthusiasm</a> means that almost every major company is considering or actively integrating generative AI — most of which is mediocre at best — into their services. As this <a target="_blank" href="https://www.wheresyoured.at/peakai/">AI hype cycle</a> persists, we're hurtling toward the death of the useful internet. Large language models like those behind ChatGPT and Google's Gemini are designed to scrape the publicly available internet and various search engines for information. This poses a problem since the web is increasingly full of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/seo-google-search-engine-drama-2023-11">generic pages designed to game the SEO system</a> rather than provide useful information. Many <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-search-generative-experience-ai-lady-gaga-sge-2024-3">sites are themselves AI-generated</a>, creating an ouroboros of mediocre, unreliable information. Take Quora, the question-and-answer site that was once beloved for high-quality user-generated answers. Quora now provides answers generated by OpenAI's ChatGPT, which feeds into Google's generative results and eventually tells <a target="_blank" href="https://futurism.com/google-search-ai-melt-eggs">users that they can melt eggs</a>. And as disconnected executives replace human editors with AI — <a target="_blank" href="https://edition.cnn.com/2023/11/02/tech/microsoft-ai-news/index.html">as Microsoft did with </a>MSN.com, leading to misinformation delivered to over a billion people a month — we'll enter a cycle where the generative models train themselves on the remains of an internet poisoned by generative content. Even the supposedly human domain of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/social-media-flooded-spammy-ai-content-2023-8">social media has become flooded with AI spam</a>, turning X, Facebook, Reddit, and Instagram into a constant battle against misinformation and outright scams.While generative AI is just the newest extension of the algorithm, it poses a unique threat. Before, humans controlled the inputs and set rules of engagement for the models while the computers produced the output. Now we're allowing these models to set the rules of the game for us, generating both the inputs and outputs. We're already starting to see some of the deleterious effects: In 2023, the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/eating-disorder-helpline-disables-tessa-chatbot-harmful-responses-2023-5">National Eating Disorders Association</a> replaced its human helpline staff with an AI chatbot, only to have to pull it shortly thereafter when it started giving harmful weight-loss advice.The wealthy and powerful will be able to opt out of this algorithmically driven future or shape it in their image by connecting directly to the humans behind companies shrouded by algorithmic processes. When you have a private banker, you don't need to worry about an anonymous, automated financial review — you've got a person with an email address and a phone number. The wealthy won't have to worry about <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-chatbots-tech-doctors-medicine-healthcare-system-empathy-quality-email-2023-6">nurses or doctors being replaced</a> by AI processes, because they'll be able to afford concierge medical services. The powerful won't have to worry about their jobs being automated away because they'll be the ones choosing where and when a job is handed over to an automated process.For the rest of us, it seems as if more and more of our lives will be dictated by the black box of algorithms, and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/chatgpt-is-like-many-other-ai-models-rife-with-bias-2023-1">we know how that goes</a>. Automation may be useful to scale and speed up the operations of a business or government, but the tradeoff is almost always human suffering — <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-reduce-employee-headcount-this-year-ceo-study-jobcuts-efficiency-2024-1">layoffs</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/07/17/1005396/predictive-policing-algorithms-racist-dismantled-machine-learning-bias-criminal-justice/">unfair policing</a>, financial losses, a distorted media environment. Even the world's greatest source of information — the internet — is poised to become overwhelmed with content either created to appeal to algorithms or content generated by the algorithms themselves, pushing aside the unique, interesting, and valuable human-generated material that made the internet special.AI isn't new in this sense, but it is an acceleration of the trend toward cutting people out of the machinations of the world around them. Perhaps an omnipotent superintelligence was never the thing to fear. Perhaps the real threat was the greed that would lead companies to willingly offload critical processes to the point that human control is overwhelmed by a cancerous force — simulacrums informed by simulacrums making real-world calls that erode the ability to decide for ourselves.<a target="_blank" rel="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/author/ed-zitron">Ed Zitron</a> is the CEO of <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener" href="https://www.ezpr.com/">EZPR</a>, a national tech and business public-relations agency. He is also the author of the tech and culture newsletter <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener" href="https://ez.substack.com/">Where's Your Ed At</a> and the host of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.betteroffline.com/">the "Better Offline" podcast</a>.

Our AI future is about to make one basic resource insanely valuable

<ul class="summary-list"><li>California approved a measure allowing it to convert wastewater into drinking water.</li><li>The measure comes as the region has battled<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/satellite-images-show-california-mega-drought-drying-up-lakes-forest-2021-7"> severe drought </a>over the past few years.</li></ul>Californians could soon have sewage waste coming out of their taps — purified, of course.California's State Water Resources Control Board recently approved regulations allowing water systems to convert wastewater, like sewage and toilet water, into purified water that <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/orange-county-purest-drinking-water-filtered-sewage-2019-10">Californians can drink</a>.According to the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/press_room/press_releases/2023/pr20231219-dpr-regulations-adoption.pdf">board's</a> December 19 press release, the measure would give California the "most advanced standards in the nation" to repurpose wastewater in a way that meets drinking standards. The process, known as direct potable reuse, would allow water systems to add millions of gallons of drinking water to their supplies while reducing the amount of waste that flows into oceans."This is an exciting development in the state's ongoing efforts to find innovative solutions to the challenges of extreme weather driven by climate change," E. Joaquin Esquivel, chair of the Water Resources Control Board, said in a statement."On top of helping us build drought-resilient water supplies, direct potable reuse offers energy savings and environmental benefits," he continued. "And most importantly, these regulations ensure that the water produced is not only safe, but purer than many drinking water sources we now rely on."<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/california-drought-aerial-photos-dried-lakes-reservoirs-2021-7">California has experienced the driest period in its history</a> over the past few years. While heavy rainfall this year led the US Drought Monitor to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/21/us/california-drought-hilary.html">declare</a> most of the state drought-free in August, the ongoing climate crisis continues to exacerbate water scarcity concerns.And while California's latest regulations are new, drinking converted wastewater isn't. Texas, for example, started employing the method in 2013, a brewery in California's Half Moon Bay <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/half-moon-bay-brewery-california-recycled-wastewater-nasa-astronauts-2023-7">switched to recycled wastewater</a> to combat drought over the summer, and Colorado's water board approved the process last year.California's water board wrote in its press release that once the new regulations are finalized by the Office of Administrative Law next year, water systems in the state can start submitting plans to begin purifying wastewater."We want to just use it as much as we can," Rebecca Kimitch, press office manager for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, <a target="_blank" href="https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/4362918-california-toilet-to-tap-water-direct-potable-reuse-proposal-what-to-know/">told</a> The Hill. "Using it once and then sending it to the ocean — that's not being as efficient and as sustainable as we can be."

Purified toilet water could soon be flowing through Californians' taps as the state battles drought

The pre-monsoon season hasn’t started on a pleasant note for <keyword id="6354915" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="assam" source="Orion">Assam</keyword>. Every year, the rainy season brings destruction to the most-populated northeastern state. It brings chaos, displacing thousands of people and animals, and damaging crops and properties worth billions. However, this time, the monsoons are yet to arrive and according to the <keyword id="645470" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="assam-state-disaster-management-authority" source="Orion">Assam State Disaster Management Authority</keyword> (ASDMA), at least <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/environment/news/over-four-lakh-people-affected-as-pre-monsoon-rains-trigger-floods-in-assam/articleshow/91632004.cms">4 lakh people have been affected and 24 people</a> have lost their lives so far due to the floods which have ravaged the state. On May 24, Assam floods witnessed a surge in the death toll, as it rose to 25 and 6.5 lakh people remained affected. These <a href="https://weather.com/en-IN/india/news/news/2022-05-24-assam-floods-improve-but-rains-prevail-over-northeast-india">6,50,402</a> affected, which include 1,25,471 children, reside in 1,709 villages based in 22 of the state's 34 districts. Close to 82,503 hectares of crop areas in flood-hit areas also remain affected. <div type="image" title="Flood hazard map of Assam, where colours represent different hazard classes" msid="91820351" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Flood hazard map of Assam, where colours represent different hazard classes&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> Why are floods an annual occurrence in the state of Assam? Assam is one of the most flood-prone states in India and it has almost become an annual calamity. In terms of impact on <a href="https://www.insightsonindia.com/2020/07/20/assam-floods/">human lives</a>, the floods of 1988, 1998 and 2004 were the worst – the 2004 floods alone affected 12.4 million people and claimed 251 lives. According to the Assam government, the <a href="https://waterresources.assam.gov.in/portlets/flood-erosion-problems#:~:text=The%20flood%20prone%20area%20of%20the%20country%20as%20a%20whole,prone%20area%20of%20the%20country.">flood-prone area</a> of the state is 31.05 lakh hectares, against a total area of 78.523 lakh hectares – this means nearly 40% of the state’s area is flood-prone. Overall, Assam accounts for nearly 10% of the total flood-prone area of the country. The average <a href="https://waterresources.assam.gov.in/portlets/flood-erosion-problems#:~:text=The%20flood%20prone%20area%20of%20the%20country%20as%20a%20whole,prone%20area%20of%20the%20country.">annual loss</a> due to floods in Assam is to the tune of ₹200 crore and particularly in 1998, the loss suffered was about ₹500 crore and during the year 2004 it was about ₹771.00 crore. Apart from the natural topography and annual excessive rainfall in Assam, there are various reasons – both man-made and natural – behind the destructive floods that hit Assam every year. Assam is home to a vast network of rivers, including the Brahmaputra and Barak River, and more than 50 tributaries feeding them. Assam also receives river water from <a href="https://waterresources.assam.gov.in/portlets/flood-erosion-problems#:~:text=The%20flood%20prone%20area%20of%20the%20country%20as%20a%20whole,prone%20area%20of%20the%20country.">neighboring states</a> like Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya. <a href="https://waterresources.assam.gov.in/portlets/flood-erosion-problems#:~:text=The%20flood%20prone%20area%20of%20the%20country%20as%20a%20whole,prone%20area%20of%20the%20country.">In 2004 and 2014</a>, the south bank tributaries of the Brahmaputra in lower Assam experienced flash floods of high magnitude due to cloud bursts in the catchment areas in Meghalaya. A similar incident occurred in <a href="https://waterresources.assam.gov.in/portlets/flood-erosion-problems#:~:text=The%20flood%20prone%20area%20of%20the%20country%20as%20a%20whole,prone%20area%20of%20the%20country.">Arunachal Pradesh in 2011</a>, further aggravating floods in Assam. Bank erosion caused by the river Brahmaputra is one of the major reasons why Assam gets flooded every year. It means the removal of soil, sediment, or rock fragments along the banks, which results from high water flow. Due to erosion, the width of the river increases and it changes its course. According to the Assam government, more than <a href="https://waterresources.assam.gov.in/portlets/flood-erosion-problems#:~:text=The%20flood%20prone%20area%20of%20the%20country%20as%20a%20whole,prone%20area%20of%20the%20country.">4.27 lakh hectares</a> of land, which is 7.40 % area of the state, has been eroded by the river Brahmaputra and its tributaries since 1950. The width of the river Brahmaputra has increased up to 15 kilometres at some places due to bank erosion, making it the widest river in India. It is estimated that annually nearly 8,000 hectares land is lost to erosion. The surveys carried out at different periods reflect an alarming picture regarding the widening of river Brahmaputra which is as follows: <div type="image" title="River Brahmaputra has been widening at an alarming rate" msid="91820475" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;River Brahmaputra has been widening at an alarming rate&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> Floods are also caused by human intervention – like encroachment of river banks and wetlands, lack of drainage, unplanned urban growth, hill cutting and deforestation. The dams that are being built are further aggravating these disasters. Government measures to control floods in Assam In 1982, the <keyword id="905955" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="brahmaputra-board" source="Orion">Brahmaputra Board</keyword> suggested that dams and reservoirs be built to mitigate floods in Assam. While dams are meant to regulate the flow of water, they can also be beyond the capacity of the channels downstream, proving to be a double-edged sword. The <keyword id="14039836" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="water-resources-department-of-assam" source="Orion">Water Resources Department of Assam</keyword> has constructed embankments and flood walls across the state. River training, bank protection, anti-erosion and town protection are also in the works. Here’s how their plan has progressed thus far: <div type="image" title="Assam govt&amp;#39;s measures to control floods in the state" msid="91820500" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Assam govt&amp;#39;s measures to control floods in the state&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> Here's a short video <div type="image" title="Why Assam gets flooded every year" msid="91820530" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Why Assam gets flooded every year&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div>

SIMPLY PUT: Why Assam gets flooded every year

<ul class="summary-list"><li>SCOTUS limited federal agencies' regulatory powers with recent rulings. </li><li>One legal expert said the high court is clearly "hellbent" on dismantling the administrative state.</li></ul>In two separate rulings over 48 hours last week, the conservative majority of the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/supreme-court-homeless-camp-removal-without-adequate-shelter-beds-2024-6">United States Supreme Court</a> overturned a 40-year-old precedent that has been long attacked by the right — and has stripped out some of the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/supreme-court-strips-sec-enforcement-power-financial-fraud-jarkesy-2024-6">Securities and Exchange Commission's</a> financial-fraud enforcement capabilities.The conservative majority, in another 6-3 ruling on Monday, made it easier for government regulations to be contested."At the end of a momentous Term, this much is clear: The tsunami of lawsuits against agencies that the Court's holdings in this case and Loper Bright have authorized has the potential to devastate the functioning of the Federal Government," Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote in her dissent of the court's Monday ruling in the case of Corner Post v. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.Justice <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/justice-elena-kagan-supreme-court-ethics-samuel-alito-2023-8">Elena Kagan</a>, in her dissent to the Friday decision to strike down the legal precedent known as the "<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/fishermen-lawsuit-will-give-supreme-court-chance-overturn-chevron-decision-2023-5">Chevron deference</a>" in the case of Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, called the Friday ruling "yet another example of the Court's resolve to roll back agency authority, despite congressional direction to the contrary."Legal experts and regulation advocates told Business Insider they largely agreed, with one law professor saying that the nation's highest court is clearly "hellbent on dismantling the entire regulatory apparatus put in place over the course of the 20th century.""These rulings make it impossible for the agencies that Congress itself created to respond quickly and efficiently to newly emerging problems," said Robert Hockett, a Cornell University professor of law and finance.Thanks to the recent SCOTUS rulings, the regulation of essentially all major industries, ranging from environmental protection to finance and public health, will be much tougher and could result in a more overburdened court system.Before Friday's ruling, if the Environmental Protection Agency, for example, identified an oil company practice that unduly risked an oil spill, it would first issue a cease-and-desist letter. The oil company might then claim that the EPA has the facts wrong or lacks the regulatory authority to address the practice, Hockett said.Then, according to Hockett, the case would be heard by an administrative court. If the oil company disagreed with that administrative judge's ruling, it could appeal and ultimately land in a court — but wouldn't do so if it couldn't point to an obvious error by the administrative law judge, Hockett said.Now, under the ruling, the case would go right to a federal court."No ALJ [Administrative Law Judge]. Straight to federal court. Court with overloaded docket scheduled hearing to the year 2035. Oil spills everywhere and renders North America uninhabitable in the meantime while we wait," Hockett said, offering an extreme example."The upshot of this is that all of the country's largest business firms in all of its major industries will go effectively unregulated or de-facto unregulated because Congress and the courts will not be able to keep up with the pace of change in our economy," said Hockett.The legal expert likened the matter to a "robber baron's dream.""These two rulings largely amputate the two most important arms that our regulatory agencies use every day in overseeing our industrial economy," Hockett said, referring to the the Chevron and SEC rulings.In <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/scotus-chevron-doctrine-bidens-climate-policies-at-risk-2024-6">overturning the Chevron doctrine</a> in a 6-3 decision, the high court has hamstrung federal agencies' regulatory powers.The doctrine, established in the 1984 Supreme Court case Chevron USA v. Natural Resources Defense Council, called for courts to defer to federal agencies' interpretations of ambiguous federal laws and statutes. It has been repeatedly used by the federal government in a wide range of cases.Chief Justice John Roberts, in his opinion, wrote that the Chevron doctrine "proved to be fundamentally misguided.""Perhaps most fundamentally, Chevron's presumption is misguided because agencies have no special competence in resolving statutory ambiguities. Courts do," Roberts wrote.The chief justice continued, "Courts must exercise their independent judgment in deciding whether an agency has acted within its statutory authority."The overturning of the Chevron precedent and Thursday's <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/supreme-court-strips-sec-enforcement-power-financial-fraud-jarkesy-2024-6">SEC v. Jarkesy decision</a> both involve cuts in the regulatory powers of federal agencies, "which means reductions in the power of the executive branch of government and an increase in the power of the judicial branch," said Jonathan Siegel, a professor of law at George Washington University.As a result, over the long term, Siegel said, "It will be more difficult for the government to enforce many statutes, and therefore, there will be more violations.""Particularly in terms of businesses, they decide what to do based not only on what's legal and what's illegal, but what is the likelihood that they will actually suffer a penalty if they do something illegal," he said.Siegel explained that the decision in SEC v. Jarkesy has the "potential to affect innumerable agency proceedings."Up until Thursday, the SEC had two ways of pursuing fraud cases. It could sue in federal court, or it could bring an "administrative proceeding" in its own in-house court, where it appoints its own judges and the cases have no juries.Roberts wrote in the decision that the latter method violated the Seventh Amendment of the US Constitution, which protects the right to a jury trial."It's certainly the case that the court and some individual justices even more strongly have expressed distaste for the amount of power administrative agencies have, and several decisions that the court has come down within the last few years have the effect of reducing that power and increasing the power of courts," Siegel said.Rachel Weintraub, the executive director of the regulation advocacy group Coalition for Sensible Safeguards, said that the common thread between the decisions "is that it is the manifestation of a conservative quest to minimize the role of the federal government.""The public expects government to do certain things. It expects the government to ensure that roads are safe and toasters don't explode, and that the water coming from our faucet doesn't cause our families harm, and that there are protections in workplaces, and that our marketplaces are fair, and that there will be consequences if entities scam us," Weintraub said.These factors, said Weintraub, "could be at stake if judges replace agency expertise with their own positions."In the case of Corner Post v. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Supreme Court ruled that a six-year statue of limitations in challenging federal agencies under the Administrative Procedure Act begins "when the plaintiff is injured by final agency action.""The Supreme Court last week made it all but impossible for federal agencies to accept future Congressional assignments of rule-making authority by overturning its own 40-year-old Chevron decision," said Hockett."Today it effectively makes that retroactive, by permitting any newly formed corporation to challenge rules that have been on the books for decades," Hockett said, explaining that before Monday's decision a statute of limitations legislated by Congress "ensured that a rule that had gone unchallenged for six years was settled law."Now, Hockett said, "every rule, no matter how long it has been in place and no matter how long corporations have been operating with a settled understanding of it, will be up for grabs."Jesse Panuccio, who served as US acting associate attorney general in the Trump administration, was less alarmed by the recent SCOTUS decisions, saying "agencies still have vast delegations of power."Panuccio told Business Insider he represents private parties who are in lawsuits against the government, and he believes it's important that there are three branches of government "with interdependent functions."Panuccio said that he supported the Supreme Court decisions in Loper Bright and Jarkesy and called them "important checks on administrative power."There is never an "even playing field" between the government and a private party — and having a ruling like this in place is the way to ensure parties are in front of a neutral judge, he said."And I think we have gone too far, no matter who the president is, the executive branch wields more power than I think the Constitution really envisions," he said. "And these opinions are important."

'A robber baron's dream': SCOTUS seems determined to dismantle an administrative state 

If you step out into <keyword id="19895037" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="bengaluru" source="keywords">Bengaluru</keyword> traffic these days, there’s a good chance you’ll discover a bulky water tanker spearheading the all-too-familiar clog in traffic. Amidst the ongoing <keyword id="6355836" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="water-crisis" source="Orion">water crisis</keyword>, India’s Silicon City has mobilised thousands of tankers that zip, almost heroically, across the city, rescuing parched residences from the metro’s urban planning crisis. Bidding to reduce their reliance on the exorb<keyword id="6354185" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="it" source="Orion">it</keyword>ant tankers — a necessary step after the exhaustion of half the city’s groundwater-fed borewells — many residential societies have begun innovating water-saving techniques, with varying degrees of success. However, for the several businesses and industries littering the metropolitan town, it seems like dark days are looming. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="IT in turmoil" comment="subhead" text="IT in turmoil">IT in turmoil</cmsannotation> Hosting over 1,400 tech companies that employ tens of lakhs of employees, Bengaluru has certainly earned its title as India’s ‘Silicon Valley’. Not only has this driven a rapid boom in economic, infrastructural and industrial development, the city has acted as a magnet for people looking for attractive employment opportunities. Unfortunately, this success has also resulted in <a href="https://bpac.in/bangalore-population-growth-consequences-and-possible-solutions/" data-type="tilCustomLink">population levels haphazardly spiking</a> from 2,900 people per square kilometre in 2001 to 4,300 within a single decade. Estimates suggest that this figure may have breached 8,000 by now! In addition to deterring water-cooler conversations, the lack of water in their workplaces have led to several companies already urging employees to work from home. Echoing a growing sentiment among the city’s techies, <a href="https://m.economictimes.com/news/india/it-companies-in-bengaluru-urged-to-give-15-lakh-employees-wfh-option-as-city-grapples-with-water-crisis/articleshow/108761390.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink">ex-Chief Justice K Sreedhar Rao also pleaded</a> for temporary remote arrangements for migrant IT workers to depopulate Bengaluru till the water crisis is dealt with. However, many such multinational employees have already begun to preemptively take matters into their own hands by temporarily or permanently moving to other cities, such as the nearby Mysuru. Needless to say, this has disrupted operations for many companies, including some of the top IT firms in Bengaluru. In a surprising turn of tragic events, senior personnel at <keyword id="19969515" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="dell" source="keywords">Dell</keyword> have begun skipping meetings to prioritise their procurement of water, reported the Deccan Herald. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Real estate rates to fall; restaurants forced to adapt" comment="subhead" text="Real estate rates to fall; restaurants forced to adapt"><keyword id="6354553" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="real-estate" source="Orion">Real estate</keyword> rates to fall; restaurants forced to adapt</cmsannotation> With pleasant weather the year round, Bengaluru has proven itself time and again as an excellent place to settle down and relax. The city’s diverse population is a testament to its uncanny ability to draw people from all over India, even before the city’s notable IT boom. Real estate has now hit an all-time high, with high demand and attractive financial options helping the sector grow exponentially in the past few decades, reportedly recording a staggering nine-year-high 54,000 housing units sold in 2023. However, the city’s recent water woes have left potential property investors second-guessing. According to a recent Deccan Herald poll, around 60% of the respondents noted that they have postponed their move to Bengaluru due to the ongoing shortage, while a similar number of people have also begun evaluating investment options in other cities. Homebuyers have also begun to diligently inquire into <keyword id="55273" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="groundwater" source="Orion">groundwater</keyword> borewell depths and water-saving technologies when consulting developers. While <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/business/bengaluru-water-crisis-alarms-property-investors-dh-poll-2930539" data-type="tilCustomLink">many contractors remain firm</a> that these reactions are not representative of a long-term trend, some experts have predicted that a fall in property prices may become inevitable. A <a href="https://www.republicworld.com/business/real-estate/bengaluru-water-crisis-property-prices-in-peenya-hsr-layout-marathahalli-to-fall-15-say-experts/" data-type="tilCustomLink">Republic report</a> explains that house rates could fall up to 10-15% in the most water-stressed regions of East and Central Bengaluru, including HSR Layout, Marathahalli, Rajaji Nagar and Peenya. Needless to say, the crisis has also taken a toll on Bengaluru’s various hotels and eateries, many of which are severely dependent on tanker water for cooking, cleaning and drinking purposes. Krishna Raj, owner of the popular <keyword id="21126683" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="nisarg-grand-hotel" source="keywords">Nisarg Grand Hotel</keyword>, <a href="https://www.livemint.com/news/india/bengaluru-water-crisis-news-hotels-disposable-utensils-shortage-lok-sabha-polls-karnataka-dk-shivakumar-congress-bjp-11710055127680.html" data-type="tilCustomLink">explained</a> that they might have to begin serving food in disposable utensils if the trend continues into the summer months. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Industrial district parched" comment="subhead" text="Industrial district parched">Industrial district parched</cmsannotation> Located in Northwest Bengaluru, Peenya is home to thousands of industries of varying sizes, producing a host of electronics, textiles, packaging, machines and other consumer items. However, being one of the largest industrial areas in Asia hasn’t protected its businesses from the ongoing crisis. In an <a href="https://www.business-standard.com/industry/news/bengaluru-water-crisis-to-impact-local-industries-in-coming-weeks-experts-124030601026_1.html" data-type="tilCustomLink">interview with Business Standard</a>, <keyword id="21126682" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="peenya-industries-association" source="keywords">Peenya Industries Association</keyword> President H. M. Arif explained that the area’s micro-industries are strained to the point that many could be forced to close soon if the water crisis continues unmitigated. Many such sectors have also become hopelessly reliant on tanker water, and the associated rising costs have begun to bottleneck the manufacturing process. Prices of several commercial products could go up soon if this trend continues. “Many from the hosiery or garment sector need water for processing,” Arif explains. “You need water for workers as well as other needs. The government is saying it will source recycled water for the industry. But for that, there is a tendering process and at this rate, we will not get water this season.” <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Solutions and cautious optimism" comment="subhead" text="Solutions and cautious optimism">Solutions and cautious optimism</cmsannotation> This is not to say that the government isn’t taking measures to tackle the crisis. After ordaining centralised control over water tankers and actively regulating prices to ensure the city’s water isn’t hoarded solely by the rich, officials also placed bans on recreational water use. In addition, initiatives are underway to “inject” 1,300 million litres of purified water into the city’s drying lakes per day, which the officials allege will help restore local groundwater levels. <keyword id="19927086" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="bwssb" source="keywords">BWSSB</keyword> has also announced plans to build an array of next-gen water treatment plants near restored lake beds to purify and deliver water wherever required. Addressing the harsh summers ahead, Karnataka government officials have expressed optimism that the completion of the Cauvery Five — a massive array of treatment plants that will treat sewage to produce 100 million litres of water a day — will help make up for any deficits by July. Meanwhile, many large corporations, including Microsoft, have begun utilising water-saving tap aerators to control water flow in the Bagmane Business Park offices. The city’s water board, the BWSSB, has also launched four mobile apps to help tackle the city’s water crisis. Attempting to bridge a gap between the water department and the citizens it serves, these apps will help residents book water online, apply for borewell permissions, report water misuse and more. At 24% of its total capacity, reservoirs across Karnataka are also drying up. Despite growing shortages, the state government has assured that the Cauvery River reservoir that supplies water to Bengaluru holds sufficient water levels to last at least until June. After that, the pre-monsoon and monsoon rains are expected to replenish the water resources. However, the supply remains much lower compared to the demand, and the only way to survive this summer could be to adopt drastic water-saving measures and a few good spells of pre-monsoon showers.

Water crisis affects businesses across Bengaluru; Is there room for cautious optimism?

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The largest desalination plant in the US is in San Diego.</li><li>Experts have said the huge costs and ecological risks mean these plants might not work nationwide.</li></ul>In the early 1990s, San Diego was dying on the vine, starved of water in a series of yearslong <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/climate-fueled-droughts-unearthing-unexpected-discoveries-2022-7">droughts</a>.The county, which relied almost entirely on imported water, had to cut back on 30% of its usage and was at risk of <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-03-05-mn-67-story.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">losing 50%</a>. At the last minute, <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-03-30-mn-722-story.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a miracle</a> saved San Diego — <a href="https://www.insider.com/California-weather-whiplash-floods-drought-getting-worse-atmospheric-rivers-2023-1">rain and snow in the desert</a> replenished aquifers, saving the city from intense cutbacks.But the water didn't extinguish the passion of San Diegans, who after finding themselves in this situation, rallied together to find a way to become more self-sufficient, Jeremy Crutchfield, the water-resources manager at the San Diego County Water Authority, told Insider.Enter the Claude "Bud" Lewis Carlsbad Desalination Plant. It would become the largest facility for turning salt water into fresh water in the United States. Now, about <a href="https://www.carlsbaddesal.com/faqs.html#:~:text=The%20Plant%20produces%2050%20million,San%20Diego%20County's%20water%20supply." target="_blank" rel="noopener">10% of the county's water</a> comes from that plant.It's not the only way that San Diegans get their water, but it's another tool in their kit to make sure drought would never threaten them again, Crutchfield said. "We've proven here in San Diego that it works," he said. But San Diego got lucky. Water access is threatened across the US, from a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/california-western-states-disagree-colorado-river-cuts-proposal-borrowed-water-2023-2">six-way tug-of-war</a> on the fraying rope that is the Colorado River's water supply, to engineers' <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mississippi-river-dangerously-low-second-year-in-row-army-dredging-2023-9">24/7 efforts to prevent</a> salt water from seeping up the Mississippi River.But for other cities, desalination might not be the answer.<h2>What is desalination, and how is San Diego using it?</h2><div type="image" title="Located in San Diego County, CA, at the Encina Power Station, The Claude &quot;Bud&quot; Lewis Carlsbad Desalination Plant is the largest salt water desalination plant in the Western Hemisphere and provides 50 million gallons of desalinated seawater per day." height="2965" width="5930" msid="104779170" hostid="261" sizebytes="793966"></div>Desalination works by taking salty water and running it through a series of increasingly fine strainers to remove debris. It's then pushed through a membrane with tiny holes that capture the salt while fresh water flows through.The holes in the membrane are about<a href="https://ixwater.com/the-viability-of-desalination" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> 0.1 micrometer in diameter</a> —<a href="https://www.nano.gov/nanotech-101/what/nano-size" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> 1,000 times thinner</a> than a sheet of paper.Just to push the water through such a small membrane, you need "a heck of a lot of electricity," Robert Glennon, a professor emeritus at the University of Arizona and the author of "Unquenchable: America's Water Crisis and What to Do About It," told Insider.All that electricity <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/electric-cars-grid-utility-bills-electricity-rates-cheaper-for-everyone-2022-12">costs a lot of money</a>.Each day, the plant generates 50 million gallons of fresh water for San Diego County, which over the course of a year amounts to between an estimated $49 million and $54 million in operations costs, a 2017 article in <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887324049504578545661598973132" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Wall Street Journal</a> said.The water-treatment facility in Orange County, California, which purifies highly treated sewer water into drinking water and serves a similar-sized population, costs about the same — $50 million — to operate each year. Except it generates about 3 ½ times more water than Carlsbad, meeting about <a href="https://www.ocwd.com/gwrs/frequently-asked-questions/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">35%</a> of Orange County's water demands.Both plants cost between around $900 million to $1 billion to build.All together, desalination costs more money than most local governments are willing or able to spend on their own, Frank Ward, a professor of resource and welfare economics who studies water policy at New Mexico State University, told Insider.Ward said, "the grim specter of costs that always comes to bite us in the rear, doesn't it?"<h2>But when stars align </h2><h2><div type="image" title="A diagram explaining that desalination works by taking ocean water, running it through a filter, then using reverse osmosis to produce fresh water and waste." height="3839" width="4300" msid="104779172" hostid="261" sizebytes="182828"></div></h2>On its own, San Diego County probably wouldn't have had the funds to get the Carlsbad plant up and running, Crutchfield said.But there was enough public interest in water resources in the area at the time to get the attention of a private player — Poseidon Water LLC.In 1998, Poseidon agreed to front the funding, permitting, designing, constructing, and early operating costs, using company funds and<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/municipal-bonds"> public-activity bonds</a>. The company took on a huge amount of early risk, Michelle Peters, director of operations at Poseidon, told Insider. One of the reasons Poseidon got the plant approved was because it had found a location that made it easy to access water, which helped it sidestep backlash from local environmentalists.Normally, where a desalination plant gets its salt water from and where it dumps its wastewater is of major environmental concern. Sucking the water in means sucking any tiny or microbial life that could disrupt the ecological balance in with it.Then dumping dense, salty waste back can drastically change the ocean's salinity and <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/slaking-the-worlds-thirst-with-seawater-dumps-toxic-brine-in-oceans/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">suffocate marine life</a>, Michael Hanemann, a professor of water economics and policy at Arizona State University, said.<div type="image" title="A diagram explaining how the Carlsbad desalination plant works." height="413" width="700" msid="104779174" hostid="261" sizebytes="24622"></div>These concerns troubled Glennon enough that when he was asked to consult on a new desalination proposal in the <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-10-05/panel-rejects-idea-of-filling-salton-sea-with-ocean-water" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Salton Sea in California</a>, he recommended against it. He remembered thinking, "What would we be doing, taking this virgin piece of beach, a functioning ecosystem, and completely degrading it?"But the Carlsbad plant was built next to a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/attacks-on-us-power-grids-increase-around-elections-experts-say-2023-9">power plant</a> conveniently located on the shoreline.The power plant used ocean water to cool its machinery — so the desalination plant could use that hot saltwater waste for its main supply. One person's trash is another's treasure, as they say.Since Carlsbad was using water that was being extracted anyway, it posed no additional threat to the ecosystem — at least on the front end. But it did have to address the back end.Peters said they developed a method of diluting the brine before sending it back to the shoreline by a discharge pond. In the eight years since it began running, the plant has kept salinity levels within regulations the <a href="https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/water_issues/programs/ocean/desalination/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">California Ocean Plan Amendments</a> has set, so in that regard, the method worked, Peters said.Moreover, dilution can be an effective way of managing environmental impact, Glennon said. <h2>The other options for saving water</h2><div type="image" title="A photograph of the rows and rows of reverse osmosis machines at the Carlsbad plant." height="3209" width="4278" msid="104779178" hostid="261" sizebytes="1443174"></div>Because of building and operations costs, plus their potential environmental and ecological toll, desalination plants might not be the saving grace to the country's water crisis that people might think, Glennon said. But they can be a backup plan."As an economist, in principle, there is a case for desal as a form of insurance against disruption of conventional surface-water supply," Hanemann said.But there are far easier methods to consider as the first line of defense against water shortages, such as <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/las-vegas-turn-away-companies-not-practicing-water-conservation-2023-9">conserving water</a>, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/orange-county-purest-drinking-water-filtered-sewage-2019-10">recycling used water</a>, and manipulating the cost of water, Glennon said. When applied rigorously, these methods have been promising in the past.<div type="image" title="A photograph of a person getting water from a tap at a promotional event for the Bud Lewis desalination plant." height="2800" width="3733" msid="104779180" hostid="261" sizebytes="311284"></div>In 2019, Los Angeles <a href="https://lacitysan.org/san/faces/home/portal/s-lsh-wwd/s-lsh-wwd-cw/s-lsh-wwd-cw-rw?_afrLoop=14485714539863279&amp;_afrWindowMode=0&amp;_afrWindowId=null&amp;_adf.ctrl-state=kkeuczw2b_1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">proposed recycling water</a> from sinks, showers, toilets, appliances, and machinery into its water supply. Recycling this source would make enough drinking water a year to equal the <a href="https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-glennon-water-sewage-recycling-los-angeles-20190305-story.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">seventh-largest river</a> in the United States, the Columbia River, Glennon said. With these easier options on the table, it's even more staggering that cities such as San Diego have pushed desalination efforts through.Peters recognized that her company's success in San Diego might be a rare occurrence.When it comes to using desalination in other cities across the country, she said, "I'm sure anything could be done. But whether that's the right call is going to be very dependent on where you're looking at."Roughly <a href="https://www.apmresearchlab.org/10x-desalination" target="_blank" rel="noopener">200 desalination plants</a> are currently operating in the US and about <a href="https://www.wwdmag.com/water/article/10917779/desalination-in-america" target="_blank" rel="noopener">50 to 75</a> new projects are proposed each year in the country.

San Diego temporarily solved its water crisis by turning ocean water into fresh water. But desalination won't work everywhere.

<ul class="summary-list"><li>India made history Wednesday as the first nation to land a spacecraft on the moon's south pole.</li><li>Days earlier, Russia's space agency said "the race for the development of the natural resources of the moon has begun."</li></ul>"To the moon" is no longer a rallying call just for the crypto crowds, as a global race to explore the celestial body heats up.On Wednesday, India made history as the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/watch-india-attempt-first-ever-moon-landing-2023-8#:~:text=India%20on%20Wednesday%20achieved%20a,south%20pole%20of%20the%20moon.">first nation to land a spacecraft</a> on the moon's south pole, an unexplored region of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-scientist-microbial-life-hiding-on-moon-south-pole-2023-6">icy craters</a> and minerals. The Chandrayaan-3 mission was India's second attempt, and its success stood in stark contrast to the failures of other countries in reaching the pole. Just days prior to the touchdown, Russia's <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/russia-space-program-in-decline-china-leaping-forward-us-intel-2023-4">Luna-25 vessel</a> crash landed when approaching the surface.Despite Russia's botched mission, Yury Borisov, chief of the state space agency, said that returning to the moon was a matter of national interest. "This is about ensuring defensive capabilities and achieving technological sovereignty," he told Russia-24. "Today, it is also of a practical value because, of course, the race for the development of the natural resources of the moon has begun."China and the US are also competitors in this lunar race, as the two nations share similar plans to reach the south pole, which is said to be rich in water.Water could be a source of fuel for spacecraft, allowing the moon to act as a layover for missions to Mars and other areas of deep space. Water would also be necessary for any people living on a future colony. Other resources on the moon could make mining lucrative. Estimates of the value of the moon's commodities range widely.In 2015, NASA said the moon holds "<a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/infographics/the-lunar-gold-rush-how-moon-mining-could-work" target="_blank" rel="noopener">hundreds of billions of dollars</a>" of untapped resources, calling it a potential "lunar gold rush."In addition to water, NASA pointed to helium-3, which could be used in nuclear fusion. It also noted rare earth metals like lanthanides, scandium, and yttrium, which are used in electronics and mostly produced in China.Meanwhile, <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-10879023/Who-snap-piece-multi-quadrillion-pound-moon-pie.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">estimates cited in the Daily Mail</a> last year valued the moon's water at more than $200 billion, its helium at $1.5 quadrillion, and its metals at $2.5 trillion. Besides the rare earths, other minerals include basalt, iron, quartz, silicon, platinum, palladium, rhodium, and titanium.The moon isn't the only celestial body loaded with lucrative elements. A 173-mile-wide asteroid known as 16 Psyche is thought to be made up of gold, iron, and nickel. The ore on the asteroid has been <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/commodities/asteroid-psyche-iron-nickel-gold-nasa-10-quintillion-metals-spacex-2023-7">estimated to be worth about $10 quintillion</a>. Another asteroid, Davida, is thought to be worth $27 quintillion.The 2015 US Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act gives companies the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/asteroid-mining-company-earth-startups-raw-materials-cobalt-gold-platinum-2021-3?utm_medium=ingest&amp;utm_source=markets" rel="">legal right to the materials mined</a> in space. And firms have already sprung up to test technology that could theoretically make this work.

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