Water is a valuable resource. New technologies are making it easier to handle drinking water responsibly, purify wastewater effectively and even recover biogas and fertilizer.

Clean drinking water and basic sanitation are human rights. Yet almost 780 million of the world’s population still have no access to drinking water and some 2.6 billion people live without sanitary facilities. Water, though, is also an important economic factor: Today, agricultural and manufacturing businesses already use up more than four fifths of this precious commodity. And the demand for water continues to rise. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is expecting that by 2050, global water consumption will have risen by more than half. Some 40 percent of the world’s population will then be living in regions with extreme water shortages — 2.3 billion people more than today. Read more

New research by scientists at the University of Bristol has challenged one of the key beliefs in chemistry: that proteins are dependent on water to survive and function. The team’s findings, published this month in Chemical Science, could eventually lead to the development of new industrial enzymes.

Proteins are large organic molecules that are vital to every living thing, allowing us to convert food into energy, supply oxygen to our blood and muscles, and drive our immune systems. Since proteins evolved in a water-rich environment, it is generally thought that they are dependent on water to survive and function. Read more

Water treatment is a process of making water suitable for its application or returning its natural state. Thus, water treatment required before and after its application. The required treatment depends on the application. For example, treatment of greywater (from bath, dish and wash water) differs from the black water (from flush toilets). Composting toilet is not allowed in urban dwelling. Yet, composting toilets are used in a 30,000-square-foot office complex at the Institute of Asian Research, University of British Columbia.

Water treatment involves science, engineering, business, and art. The treatment may include mechanical, physical, biological, and chemical methods. As with any technology, science is the foundation, and engineering makes sure that the technology works as designed. The appearance and application of water is an art. Read more

What happens to the rain after it hits the ground? Where does it go? Where did it come from? Let’s start at the beginning!

We don’t lose or gain any water. The water that we have we got when the earth was just being formed. This means that the water in your cup has been around for many hundreds of millions of years. It gets recycled through a process called the water cycle. Read more

History is, one might say, somewhat waterlogged. Since water is absolutely essential to human life, it should not be surprising that it is an important component of human history. Yet it is surprising how little attention water receives in historical accounts.

Humans have generally settled near convenient sources of water. Most of the great ancient civilizations depended on a particular source of water. For example, the Egyptians centered their civilization on the Nile. Mesopotamia (Greek for the land between the rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates) was the home of several important ancient empires. Chinese civilization was located principally in the Yellow and Yangzi river basins. In the case of these great civilizations, there usually is considerable discussion of water as a fundamental aspect of the civilization in question. Read more