Water, Sewage & Effluent March April 2019 | Page 40

Can technology
save us?
About the author
Fresh water is the most important resource for
human life on earth.
By Anna Kucirkova
G
lobal climate change and
the exponential increase in
population have led to water
scarcity and recent headline-
grabbing water shortages in major urban
centres like Cape Town and Sao Paulo.
As water scarcity or cleanliness
continue to present major issues to
humanity’s survival, communities across
the globe are turning to technology
to help access more fresh water —
or create it using seemingly ‘magic’
techniques.
Why fresh water matters
The first and most obvious reason is that
humans need fresh, potable drinking
water to drink. It is the lifeblood of all
living things on earth; most plants and
animals are made up of 70% (or more)
water, and aside from a precious few
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highly adapted desert organisms, most
living things cannot survive long without
water — a matter of days for most plants
and animals.
Many research organisations note
that a billion people and countless
billions of animals and plants are in
danger of running out of access to
fresh water by natural or irrigated
sources. Between overuse, climate
change, and contamination, there are
water crises unfolding in arid regions
like the United Arab Emirates and Iran
as well as a place once known as the
‘City of Drizzle’ — not Seattle, but Sao
Paulo, Brazil.
Aside from growing populations
making demands on the same amount
of drinking water as has always been
available, growing populations with
shifting tastes are creating huge demand
Water Sewage & Effluent March/April 2019
Anna Kucirkova is a freelance
journalist and has worked as a
copywriter for over four years.
She speaks three languages, loves
travelling, and has a passion for the
environment and writing. While she
has been to many places in Europe
and Southeast Asia, she still wants
to explore the rest of the world.
for agricultural meats, which create
heavy demands on regional water
supplies. The ‘water footprint’ of a pound
of beef can be hundreds of times more
gallons than creating a pound of grain
like corn, rice, or wheat.
As the BBC puts it …
Water demand globally is projected
to increase by 55% between 2000 and
2050. Much of the demand is driven by
agriculture, which accounts for 70%
of global freshwater use, and food
production will need to grow by 69%
by 2035 to feed the growing population.
Water withdrawal for energy, used
for cooling power stations, is also
expected to increase by over 20%. In
other words, the near future presents
one big freshwater drain after the next.
www.waterafrica.co.za