The new water technologies that could save the planet

The well was a transformative invention, though it is often overlooked. This source of freshwater, vital for the expansion of inland communities, dates back nearly 10,000 years – 3,000 years before the wheel was ever imagined.

The well is but one of a long list of innovations in water technology that have enabled human development to continue apace. Sophisticated pipeline networks and treatment plants today furnish us with this elixir of life and industry. As intense pressure is placed on the planet's limited water supplies, businesses are again turning to technological innovation. New and emerging inventions should see human civilisation through the 21st century and, with any luck, the next 10,000 years.

Nanotechnology in filtration:

According to the World Health Organisation, 1.6 million people die each year from diarrhoeal diseases attributable to lack of safe drinking water as well as basic sanitation. Researchers in India have come up with a solution to this perennial problem with a water purification system using nanotechnology.

The technology removes microbes, bacteria and other matter from water using composite nanoparticles, which emit silver ions that destroy contaminants. "Our work can start saving lives," says Prof Thalappil Pradeep of the Indian Institute of Technology Madras. "For just $2.50 a year you can deliver microbially safe water for a family." It is a sign that low-cost water purification may finally be round the corner – and be commercially scaleable. Unlike other solutions, in being inexpensive, this new process brought about a real fix for an increasingly growing problem.

Seawater desalination:

Another innovative stride in terms of solutions for the increasing concern surrounding access to drinking water has to do with making brackish water and even seawater safe for consumption. Although holding much promise for the future, seawater desalination is still extremely expensive, with reverse osmosis technology consuming a vast amount of energy: around 4 kilowatt hours of energy for every cubic metre of water.

One solution being studied in Singapore, which opened its first seawater desalination plant in 2005, is biomimicry - mimicking the biological processes by which mangrove plants and euryhaline fish (fish that can live in fresh briny or salt water) extract seawater using minimal energy. Another new approach is to use biomimetic membranes enhanced with aquaporin: proteins embedded in cell membranes that selectively shuttle water in and out of cells while blocking out salts.

Harry Seah, chief technology officer for PUB, Singapore's national water agency, says: “If science can find a way of effectively mimicking these biological processes, innovative engineering solutions can potentially be derived for seawater desalination. Seawater desalination can then be transformed beyond our wildest imagination.”

Hanley Will. The new water technologies that could save

the planet. The Guardian. 2013. Adapted from: <https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/new-watertechnologies- save-planet>. Accessed on: May 26th 2022.