This year’s World Water Day marks the launch of the 5th United Nations World Water Development Report (WWDR) on the theme of water and energy. Coal remains a top energy producer world-wide. Its connection to water is a parasitic one. It drains our precious water supplies and spits back polluted skies, lakes, streams and rivers, both in its processing and production.

The following pictures are a journey through the lives of people -- their homes and their lands, who have been directly affected by coal power production. These are people and places which already suffer from water-scarcity, but now see their livelihoods and health hung in the balance of an outmoded means of energy production.