A new report on water scarcity and how to solve it, compiled by a group of chemical engineers and scientists will be presented at the 251st National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society. The report in question is titled Chemistry and Water: Challenges and Solutions in a Changing World.
Conspiracy theorists love waxing lyrically about how water will be the cause of the next wars, but as time and climate change progress it is becoming more and more of a bargaining chip due to its scarcity in the world. The mission of the paper that is being presented is to address the issue of supplying the world with clean drinking water.
According to Phys.org, the researchers looked at four categories:
- Water for health and the environment
- Detection of contaminants in water supplies
- Treatment of water
- Nutrient and energy recovery
The intention is then to investigate how chemistry and chemical engineering can improve the situation that the world is facing. Engineers from five countries collaborated from September 2015 to research scarcity issues. It forms part of a project named ‘Chemical Sciences and Society Summit series’ that saw chemical companies from around the world agree to fund research into how to save water for the future generations.
According to Bassam Z. Shakhashiri, Ph.D., David L. Sedlak, Ph.D., and Jerald L. Schnoor, P.h.D, in a recent article in Chemical & Engineering News, they wrote; “In the developing world, nearly 1 billion people lack access to safe drinking water and sanitation because of the absence of distribution systems for clean water.” This is what the new report released at the National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society will discuss.
The work that some of the engineers are currently doing is testing contaminants in water supplies around the world so that those contaminants can be phased out once the root cause of them is found. Anything that is currently poisoning water supplies and is deemed unhealthy will be the first focus for the chemical engineers attached to this project.
In addition, the scientists and engineers are reaching out, asking governments for global compliance and contribution so that the problem of unhealthy drinking water and water scarcity is solved.