Sustainable water treatment technologies: a review.

Abstract

The sustainability concept is emerged to maintain and strengthen “the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. The adaptive capacities of the world population can be strengthened by eradication of poverty and provision of healthy living conditions which takes the priority. This can be achieved by provision of education and basic infrastructure to the people, worldwide. Availability of high quality drinking water and assurance of hygienic safety is one of the most basic needs of any community, and subsequently a precondition of sustainable development of rural or municipal areas. Decentralized water management should be seriously taken into account in the present scenario of extremely varying climatic changes affecting the potential water resources of the world. Also the energy requirement of centralized water supply schemes is fueling the energy scarcity. Therefore, effective utilization of ground water resources can be the intelligent step the towards achieving sustainable living conditions. Additionally, the water demand in the agricultural industry has become an important concern, considering that more than 70% of freshwater is used for crop irrigation. Desalination is considered a promising solution for water production challenges, but the sustainability of the same needs a detailed study. The treatment of waste water is another necessary criteria to satisfy the basic demands of good quality water for human life and industrial use. In the present review, different methods of water treatment technologies are studied, to assess their contribution towards sustainable development. Water treatment technologies for drinking purpose, waste water purification and desalination were deliberated and the effectiveness of each in attaining sustainable habitat has been portrayed in this review. It was observed that sustainable technologies for water treatment can be a better solution to face the water scarcity challenges in the world as they are self-reliable while compared to other methods.