*_mei ni_*
Monday, October 20, 2008
Portfolio Task 3: Summary for Article - Provide Access to Clean Water
Water availability is not reaching out to everyone though it may be plentiful worldwide. This can be explained by political and economical barriers or environmental factors where water pollution is seen as a norm in developing countries. The vast usage of water not only in the agricultural and industrial sectors; but also in ecological processes, signifies its importance. Water is most abundant in oceans, however it is not usable unless after desalination. As for the planet’s freshwater, they are either in the form of snow or ice or present in groundwater aquifers, which are depleted much faster than they can be replenished. Thus, more state-of-the-art methods have to be developed in order to satisfy our present demands. Countries such as U.S., China and India have been adopting these large-scale diversion projects whereby water is moved from a plentiful source to a scarce region. Yet, this approach only alleviates short-term conditions and does not serve as a universal, long-term remedy. Moreover, this can turn into a sticky political issue as “diverting water to some people often means less for others” (Provide Access to Clean Water, 2008). In modern desalination plants, reverse osmosis engages the use of membrane to separate out the salt. Still, the high costs and high operating energy requirements of these desalination plants make it impossible for impoverished states. An alternative known as nano-osmosis helps in mitigating both the cost and energy factors. Recycling of wastewater can be another option but only under effective decontamination and thorough safeguarding measures. “Drip irrigation” is a new technology that lessens the agricultural water needs though one of its drawbacks includes affecting the plant growth. As for less developed areas, the idea of small decentralized distillation units is being favoured. Research on producing economical distillation units is still ongoing. Thus, in order to administer the world’s water supplies threats, new technologies have to be implemented.
References
References
National Academy of Engineering. (2008). Provide Access to Clean Water. Retrieved from 23 September, 2008 from http://www.engineeringchallenges.org/cms/8996/9142.aspx
posted by *_mei ni_* at 1:18 AM
1 Comments:
Though there is no original article in your post, it still present the whole thing, I think. And well done!
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