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If we do a proper job with source protection, we not only save a lot of money on treatment but we also enhance public health protection and sustainability. Everyone who has worked in the water supply field knows that protecting the source pays huge dividends. One dollar spent preventing a contamination problem saves hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars on cleaning up the problem. This month, six feature articles deal with the source water and supply topic.

Many anthropogenic activities release pollutants that can find their way to drinking water sources, potentially impacting human health and water treatment costs and causing environmental depletion in watersheds. Planning and management of land use are therefore necessary to protect drinking water sources, an essential and complex endeavour. Regulatory frameworks often require identifying and evaluating land parcels with activities that should be controlled or forbidden. In order to support these tasks, we developed a sociotechnical multicriteria evaluation approach, based on ELECTRE III, for assessing the contamination potential of parcels. By incorporating stakeholders’ values and different types of data (quantitative, qualitative, and spatial), this novel approach is a comprehensive way for assessing potential threats to drinking water sources. It was applied in Quebec City, Canada, and led to a spatial decision support system currently used operationally by the municipality. It is generalizable and can be adapted to other watersheds. It helps decision-makers in prioritizing field inspections in the watershed in order to apply source water protection actions where needed.

Groundwater resources in Debre Markos, Ethiopia, are under increasing pressure from urbanization, agricultural expansion, and climate change. This study integrates GRACE satellite data (2002–2017) and GIS-based land use/land cover (LULC) analysis to assess groundwater storage variations, identify contamination risks, and propose sustainable water supply strategies. Results show a persistent decline in groundwater storage and yield, especially in wells surrounded by high-risk land uses. Buffer zone analysis revealed substantial encroachment by agriculture and built-up areas within 300 m protection zones. A spatial buffer analyses around wells in the Wutren and Sentera fields reveal, significant overlap in drawdown zones and inadequate well spacing some as close as 16 m leading to increased mutual interference and aquifer stress. Moreover, risk zones, delineated based on land use encroachment and proximity-based interference, highlight critical areas where agriculture and built-up zones compromise source protection. The study recommends enforcing groundwater protection buffers, optimizing well spacing, regulating land use within critical zones, and expanding remote sensing tools for continuous groundwater monitoring and sustainable water supply planning.

Source water protection (SWP) programs funded in the 2018 Farm Bill require highly motivated partners for implementation in priority watersheds. Three categories of past and current SWP projects are discussed: conservation partnership projects, conservation programs for farmers and ranchers, and forestry programs. There are several examples of utilities and US Department of Agriculture partnering to implement SWP programs.

Quantifying relationships between treatment costs and source water conditions can estimate avoided‐treatment expenditures and determine whether source water protection would be cost‐effective.

Key Takeaways While point‐source discharges are regulated for source water contamination, that's not necessarily the case with agricultural nonpoint sources. Partnerships between drinking water utilities and farmers benefit from a mutual understanding of each partner's efforts and challenges in source water protection. Examples of long‐standing collaborations between utilities and agricultural interests serve as models for new source water protection projects. The Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 mandates that 10% of all conservation funds or $4 billion over 10 years is to be spent on source water protection.

This qualitative study explores how cultural meanings of water involving customs, myths, and taboos contribute to source water protection in rural Ghana—an area that needs to be explored more in sustainability literature in Ghana. Using semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions in three communities, we identify myths, customs, taboos, and other cultural practices for protecting water sources. We found that cultural practices in rural communities in Ghana are paramount in protecting water sources and should be recognized as part of efforts toward Sustainable Development Goal 6—clean water and sanitation.