Sunday, 13 October 2013

Why Wastewater Management Is So Important?

By Adam Finan


Being among the most important resources in the world, fresh water is essential for every living creature including people. The biggest problem is that only 3 percents of the water is fresh and not all of this fresh water is usable, as one part of it is locked in the glaciers and ice caps and the other part is located in remote areas where people cannot use it. Actually, this means that we can use only 0.08 percent of the water to meet our daily needs. Can you imagine the mankind to use just 0.08 percent for drinking, manufacturing, environment, leisure, sanitation, etc?

A recent study conducted in 2007 revealed that over 1.2 billion people around the world suffer from the water scarcity, and they do not have access to water enough to meet their daily needs. Another 1.6 billion of people suffer economically from the water scarcity, i.e. their local authorities cannot satisfy the rising water demand in these areas due to the insufficient investments or lack of human capacity.

Since half part of the world population is concentrated in the cities and urban centers, the natural water sources located around the cities are polluted by industrial and urban wastewater. The cities should develop systems for treating the wastewater; otherwise, there could be a risk for people's health related to the use of wastewater, containing different pollutants, such as heavy metals, pathogens, etc.

Since the usable amount of fresh water is limited, people discover ways to properly manage and optimize water usage. Water usually comes as harvested rainwater in many locations. This water should be properly collected and used during the dry season for agricultural purposes. The groundwater is also very important, so people drill wells to use it efficiently for both agricultural and drinking purposes. The significance of lakes should also revive, so that the residents located nearby can use this collected water effectively.

A large portion of 70% of freshwater is used for food production in agriculture. This is explicable, as the world population increases each and every year requiring more and more food to survive. The most part of the population is concentrated in the big cities, which deteriorates the problem with water scarcity even more.

There are six major steps that should be done to resolve the water problems globally, but every individual should take part in these simple strategies and contribute to improve the situation.

We need to start by improving all existing water related data. We need to learn how to protect our environment from any further pollution. We have to reform our water governance and to revitalize the agricultural water use. We need to manage all industrial water demand and provide an access to the water resources to women and children in poor regions.

These steps should be taken globally to avoid water crisis that would be devastating for our world. All industries and urban centers need to learn how to use water efficiently, so that people can increase the water for agricultural purposes to meet the increasing demand for more and more food.




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