Global Scans · Clean Water and Sanitation · Weekly Summary

In September 2015, 193 world leaders agreed to 17 Global Goals for Sustainable Development. If these Goals are completed, it would mean an end to extreme poverty, inequality and climate change by 2030.
Goal 6. Ensure availability of water and sanitation for all.

• [New] The Valuing Water Finance Initiative is a global investor-led effort to engage companies with a large water footprint to value and act on water as a financial risk and make the necessary large-scale changes to better protect freshwater water resources and build business resiliency. Ceres: Sustainability is the bottom line
• [New] Google aims to replenish more freshwater than we consume by 2030 and help improve water quality and ecosystem health in the communities where we operate. Google Data Centers
• [New] Google will evaluate projects on the basis of volumetric benefits (in millions of gallons per year MGY) following the Volumetric Water Benefit Accounting 2.0 Guidance as the industry standard. Google Data Centers
• [New] California American Water plans approximately $277 million of water and wastewater infrastructure investments in 2026 across California. Stock Titan
• [New] The EPA wants public comment on whether interim utility actions during a compliance extension - point-of-use treatment, filtration pitchers, education, alternative water sources - can mitigate health risks above 12 ppt. Circle of Blue
• [New] The ongoing water crisis in First Nations communities has drawn international condemnation, with human rights bodies warning that Canada's failure to ensure safe water constitutes a violation of fundamental human rights. SenCanada
• [New] Water shortages in the US are reaching critical levels, driven by climate change, aging infrastructure, and aquifer depletion, with New Mexico, California, Arizona, and the Colorado River Basin facing severe risks. To be
• [New] Repeated failure to check deeds could land conveyancers in regulatory hot water. Law Gazette
• [New] Personal rainfall harvesting, which is already big in Germany and other countries, will help to address the predicted water deficit. The Guardian
• [New] The United Nations is warning of a global sand deficit caused by over-dredging, threatening water quality, infrastructure, and biodiversity. Circle of Blue
• [New] The EPA proposes six control measure options that applicable water systems could select and implement to reduce PFOA and PFOS concentrations and provide information for consumers to decrease their exposure to PFAS. Federal Register
• [New] To achieve compliance with the PFOA and PFOS MCLs, the EPA anticipates that some water systems will seek to restructure, such as entering into water system partnerships or physically consolidating or connecting with another nearby water system. Federal Register
• [New] The EPA evaluated a number of other considerations that, when combined with the previously discussed capital improvement, workforce challenges, and financial hardship, are likely to significantly influence water systems' ability to comply with the MCLs by 2029. Federal Register
• [New] Amazon says it already uses recycled water for cooling at 24 data centers globally and plans to expand water recycling to more than 120 U.S. locations in states and counties where it operates by 2030, preserving more than 530 million gallons of drinking-water supply annually. Tank Transport
• [New] Oracle says its New Mexico Project Jupiter campus will not use the local public drinking-water system for cooling, will rely on non-potable industrial well water under contract, and will use direct-to-chip, closed-loop, non-evaporative cooling. Tank Transport
• [New] Total Texas data-center water use could climb to roughly 3% to 5% of statewide demand under lower-capacity futures and 5% to 9% under high-capacity futures by 2030 to 2040. Tank Transport
• [New] If 2024 water-use intensity persists, U.S. data centers could require 697 million to 1.451 billion gallons per day of new water capacity by 2030, with a water-capacity valuation on the order of $10 billion to $58 billion. Tank Transport

Last updated: 31 May 2026