Around the world today, access to safe and clean water is becoming scarce and expensive. Trash pollutes oceans and lakes, companies pour toxic chemicals into freshwater, and old pipes can cause lead to end up in people's drinking water. For students and youth, this can be a frightening issue. As the generation that will be the future world leaders, advocating now for improved water quality solutions is essential to ensuring public health and environmental safety for the decades to come. Every human needs water to drink, clean, cook, and bathe. Therefore, protecting this resource and guaranteeing its quality needs to be prioritized. Students and youth have been working hard to improve the water quality in their communities and countries. Through researching, educating, protesting, volunteering, and much more, students have had and continue to have success in their initiatives to improve water quality.

To begin, one inspiring youth-led organization that has been improving water quality and working on ocean conservation is EarthEcho. In an interview with Maya Heller, a student ambassador for EarthEcho's Water Challenge, she stated that she has "not only learned how to but also been able to teach more people how to test the water quality of their local waterways." She says they "test for turbidity, pH, water temperature, and dissolved oxygen...[and] share data on an online database of over 1.7 billion participants that monitors water quality." Additionally, EarthEcho organizes water clean-ups and community events. Moreover, Maya has ventured to Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., with EarthEcho, to lobby congressmen for "recycling infrastructure acts, EPR (extended producer responsibility), public health considerations, and environmental justice." When asked what piece of advice she would give to other young people motivated to clean up their local waterways, she said, "My advice would be to build a community around improving local water quality...Bring friends with you to test water quality...or get out hiking or swimming to enjoy nature." Students like Maya are proving that young people can positively impact water quality and help new water safety/environmental policies succeed in Congress.

Another impactful youth water quality initiative is Bye Bye Plastic Bags. This foundation started when two young sisters saw how much plastic pollution there was on their home island of Bali. They also saw the devastating impact the plastic was having on ocean ecosystems. The sisters, Melati and Isabel, started Bye Bye Plastic Bags in 2013 and have had immense success since. Over the last twelve years, these youth were able to speak at over 1,000 events (where they motivated other students to free waterways from plastic), have had single-use plastic bags banned in Bali, and started Youthtopia. Youthtopia is "A place for all young changemakers to find community and uplift each other" (Youthtopia). Regarding safe, clean water goals, one Youthtopia changemaker, Catarina Lorenzo, has been a leader in ocean conservation. In 2019, Catarina traveled to Glasgow—with Greta Thunberg—to speak at COP29 to United Nations leaders. They exhorted that "children wanted an environmentally safe future" (Mansi, How Can Young People Shape the Future of Our Oceans? Lessons from Catarina Lorenzo). Catarina's work and passion demonstrates another example of successful youth action for improved water quality globally.

Ways that Students Can Influence U.S. Policies: Furthermore, once a student turns eighteen, they can vote in the United States. With the responsibility of voting comes an opportunity to influence political decisions and who the elected representatives are for one's local government. Thus, it is important that students in colleges and universities (and all other young adult citizens) have clear and straightforward methods to obtain voter I.D.s and to register to vote.

Students who are under eighteen years old can still influence water quality and environmental policies! They can sign petitions, lobby local politicians, attend protests, and spread awareness about local and national water quality issues. Today, one of the easiest and most effective ways for youth to spread awareness and educate others is through social media platforms.

Ultimately, since the human population continues to grow, more and more clean water will be necessary to serve everyone's needs. As has already been seen through multiple initiatives, youth and students can have an incredible impact when solving this challenge because many of them are motivated to do so.