[blamazon]

My thesis is, pick (nearly) any border in the world and you will find something like this happening inside of it, and that's the global condition that doesn't bode well. If we can't figure things out within borders, how are we to do it at the global scale, which as you point out is much harder?

[ch4s3]

Plenty of countries and localities have fixes in place for internal air quality issues. We've largely solved this in the US. Inida also has a lot of wood burning and 2-stroke engine vehicles. They have a lot of low hanging fruit here if they prioritize it. Dealing with atmospheric Co2 is a much bigger and thornier problem.

[blamazon]

The US has largely solved the air quality problem, but the situation of water rights in the west feels to me like it carries the same tones of OP story.

[ch4s3]

Not really. The Colorado River Compact is a special monster that allocated more water than exists on average in the river.