Economies in the Asia-Pacific region cannot sustain their present dynamic growth “unless water is brought into the equation” as the region faces a “crisis” in securing and managing the prime resource.

A comprehensive report on water development in Asia-Pacific just released by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) says that it is now “the global hot spot for water insecurity”.

Up to 3.4 billion people could be living in water-stressed areas of Asia by 2050, says the report, citing data from a study conducted by the Austria-based International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA). Several countries in the region — Afghanistan, China, India, Pakistan and Singapore — are projected to have the lowest per capita water availability by 2050. Read more

Water shortages, unreliable water supplies and poor water quality are major obstacles to sustainable development. Millions of children die each year due to water shortages or exposure to water-related diseases. And the UN predicts that by 2025, more than one third of the world’s population — over 3.5 billion people — will face severe water shortages.

Nanotechnology can help alleviate these problems by offering new techniques and equipment for conducting water research as well as new purification methods.

While some nanotech water treatments are being developed in Europe, Japan and the United States — researchers at US-based Rice University have, for example, created a nano-based product to remove arsenic from water supplies (see ‘Nanotechnology for clean water: Facts and figures’) — developing countries too are investing in research to harness nanotechnology for clean water. Read more

Local mistrust is slowing take up of simple innovations that use sunlight to disinfect water, a UK conference has heard.

Researchers working on low-cost, low-tech water purification systems for developing countries are struggling to convince local people that their solutions work, the EuroScience Open Forum heard yesterday.

“We do not think enough about this. That’s why solar disinfection remains among the least-used technologies in this field.” Kevin McGuigan, Royal College of Surgeons, Ireland

This is because most communities prefer to use known technologies, such as ceramic filters and chemicals, to clean their water and make it safe to drink, scientists said. Read more

Researchers at Alexandria University in Egypt have unveiled a cost-effective desalination technology which can filter highly salty water in minutes.

The technology is based on membranes containing cellulose acetate powder, produced in Egypt. The powder, in combination with other components, binds the salt particles as they pass through, making the technique useful for desalinating seawater.

“The membrane we fabricated can easily be made in any laboratory using cheap ingredients, which makes it an excellent option for developing countries,” says Ahmed El-Shafei, an associate professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering in Alexandria University, and an author of the study. Read more

A team of astronomers has made the first observations with a cutting-edge water-hunting instrument. The instrument, known as the Swedish–ESO PI receiver for APEX (SEPIA), is not only suited for identifying signatures of water and other molecules in the Milky Way but also in other galaxies, and it may even be capable of detecting ancient water dating back to the early Universe.

SEPIA is in essence a highly-sensitive spectrograph calibrated to search for a particular light wavelength (between 1.4 – 1.9 mm) that indicates the presence of water. Mounted aboard the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) telescope, the delicate sensors must be cooled to a temperature only slightly above absolute zero in order to function optimally. Read more