FINDING LOCAL SOLUTIONS FOR WATER SCARCITY

March 22nd is World Water Day (WWD) and the theme for 2007 is Coping with Water Scarcity. This theme seems appropriate given that the United Nations (UN) predicts that by 2025, 1.8 billion people will live in regions or countries with “absolute water scarcity.” Many around the globe are actively working to improve this outlook and WWD serves to focus discussions on this issue and publicize worldwide efforts and successes.

This year, the UN has tied the need to address water scarcity issues to tangible policy goals. Specifically, the UN notes that the poverty and hunger in rural areas cannot be addresses without simultaneously addressing fair and equitable access to water . Drinking water, agriculture, sanitation and sustainable industry – none are possible without access to water and all are required to lift regions out of poverty. As an outcome of the World Summit on Sustainable Development, in 2002, a multi-tiered action plan has emerged that calls for action at all levels (international, national, regional and local) to address water resource protection and management, worldwide.

Water desalination has been practiced around the world, though 60% of the output capacity is located in the Middle East; the scarcity of ground water in this region has driven many nations, including Saudi Arabia, to implement large-scale desalination. In recent years however, many coastal municipalities in the US have evaluated desalination as a means of providing a sustainable water source for an ever-expanding population. While there are many methods of desalinating water, the two technologies that have been considered the most practical for large-scale use are reverse osmosis and distillation.

In reverse osmosis (RO), the feed water is pumped at high pressure through a collection of permeable membranes, separating salts from the water….More