Via: World Business Council for Sustainable Development
By The International Herald Tribune:
Water supply shortages are becoming a problem of global proportion. In the past month, 2,000 farmers in India were arrested for stealing water; the regional government of the Spanish province of Catalonia said it was going to import water by boat and train beginning in May to provide summer supplies; the Queensland Water Commission in Australia put local residents on the toughest water restrictions; and in Atlanta, residents filed lawsuits against the municipal government in protest over faulty water pipes and failing sewer systems.
According to the World Water Institute, a mere 2.5 percent of the earth’s ground and surface water is accessible for human use. This finite resource, maintained by the earth’s hydrologic cycle, is used for everything from drinking water to sanitation, agriculture and industrial processes. Undermined by overuse, pollution and inefficient infrastructure as well as natural occurrences like drought, humankind’s water supply is nearing its limit.
In a report released last month, the investment bank JP Morgan addressed the risk looming water supply shortages pose to companies. It included data from the World Resources Institute that half the world already faced water stress, or the deterioration of fresh water resources in quantity or quality, if not outright shortage.
The bank, echoing numerous entities tracking the issue, cited three primary factors for the supply-demand imbalance, including population growth, urbanization and climate change.
According to Antoine Frérot, chief executive of Veolia Water in Paris, all the necessary technologies and processes are there to resolve the issue directly, transforming wastewater into potable water. “They are already in place,” Frérot said. “And the wastewater is there where we need it, just downstream of the cities. This would prevent overuse of freshwater.”
Municipalities are using highly treated reclaimed wastewater to supplement the water supply, in some cases even for drinking. Frérot said Veolia had built and was operating a wastewater plant in Singapore that recycled gray water into water pure enough to drink, but for use by local semiconductor makers. It has accomplished a similar feat in Windhoek, the capital of Namibia, where a wastewater recycling plant supplies about 250,000 residents with drinking water.
The problem, Frérot said, is not a lack of ability but a lack of interest. Until recently, public concern over the sustainability of water supplies has been relatively low in all but the most parched segments of the globe.
This could soon change. Based on present consumption levels, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development projects that by 2030, about 47 percent of the world’s population will be living in areas with severe water stress. To the OECD, based in Paris, the situation represents, “one of the greatest human development challenges of the early 21st century.”
Challenging, but rife with opportunity. Over the next 20 years, the United States is expected to spend about $1.2 trillion on repairing and upgrading its water management infrastructure.
No comments
Comments feed for this article