Bank of the West Fresh Water Challenge

The American West is running out of water. Fast. If you live in a community that is under, or prone to, drought conditions, or you live in a pretty much any Western state, these issues are very familiar to you. Become a Changemakers when you enter this interesting and timely challenge to come up with innovate ways to promote sustainable relationships with water in your home and community.

“Design a solution for your family, school, community to reduce, reuse, and recycle water. Solutions might range from creative engineering concepts to capture and reuse water to strategies to make dramatic reductions in water use at your school or community.

According to the UN, more than 40% of the world's population suffers from water scarcity, and 1.7 billion people live in locations where water use exceeds available water supplies. The importance of SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation cannot be understated.

Weather extremes caused by climate change have drastically reduced our water supply around the world. In California, USA, where many Bank of the West employees and customers live in work, extreme heat and lack of rain and snow in all 58 counties of California have caused a drought emergency proclamation. While this has a direct impact on Californians, these climate catastrophes also have far reaching impacts such as disrupted agricultural supply chains, decreased water quality, and destroyed animal habitats.

In other parts of the world, weather extremes in countries like Spain have decimated olive oil production. Across all of Europe, hot and dry conditions combined with receding water levels have forced communities to rethink the ways they use, conserve, and waste water.

In this challenge, we're asking you to think about ways that individuals, families, communities, and schools can work individually and collectively to help preserve and reuse fresh water.

How do I get started? Click here.