Humans flush away vast amounts of water every day. When managed correctly, this wastewater is collected and undergoes treatment to remove pollutants that can otherwise threaten human and environmental health. In my latest research I estimated that more than 50% of the world’s domestic and manufacturing wastewater now follows this pathway, rather than the previous estimates of just 20%.
While this sounds like good news, it comes with a caveat. Treatment rates vary drastically across the world, and are especially low in many developing countries. An estimated 4.2 billion people lack access to safe sanitation and there are around 829,000 deaths from diarrhoea attributed to unsafe water and sanitation every year, so there is clearly still a long way to go. This challenge will be further compounded by rapid population growth and industrialisation. These factors threaten to increase the production of wastewater much faster than infrastructure can be developed.
Toxic sites mapped to promote reuse on Chicago s Southeast Side, south suburbs
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JACL Chicago s Day of Remembrance discusses reparations, redress
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