Water For Peace Water Supply Technology

The continued lack of access to adequate amounts of safe drinking water is one of the primary causes of infant morbidity and mortality worldwide and a serious situation which governments, international agencies and private organizations are striving to alleviate. Barriers to providing safe drinking water for rural areas and small communities that must be overcome include the financing and stability of small systems, their operation, and appropriate, cost-effective technologies to treat and deliver water to consumers. While we know how to technically produce safe drinking water, we are not always able to achieve sustainable safe water supplies for small systems in developed and developing countries. Everyone wants to move rapidly to reach the goal of universal safe drinking water, because safe water is the most fundamental essential element for personal and social health and welfare. Without safe water and a safe environment, sustained personal economic and cultural development is impossible. Often small rural systems are the last in the opportunity line. Safe Drinking Water in Small Systems describes feasible technologies, operating procedures, management, and financing opportunities to alleviate problems faced by small water systems in both developed and developing countries. In addition to widely used traditional technologies this reference presents emerging technologies and non-traditional approaches to water treatment, management, sources of energy, and the delivery of safe water.

Over time, the increased use of fresh water for agriculture and industry together with contamination from discharges of pollutants, mean that ever more areas of the planet are becoming water-stressed. Because of the competing needs of communities and industry for fresh water, industry will be challenged to meet its growing demands for water, which is essential for producing the goods and services that would boost human welfare. Thus industry will need to learn how to cost-effectively purify and recycle its wastewater for reuse, ultimately approaching a net zero-discharge condition. The chapters in this book, written by international experts, treat the technical issues of such treatment and water management, and also provide guidance on technologies, either existing or in development, that can potentially achieve the goal of recycle-reuse. The book will serve as a useful reference for academics, government and industry professionals alike.