Water scarcity is one of the serious threats facing humanity today. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals also emphasize this serious issue. With the continuous increase of global population, the demand for clean water is also increasing. Fortunately, green technology and innovation can become leverage for achieving a sustainable future with clean water.

Water scarcity is a global problem, as only a small portion of the world's water resources are clean enough for human consumption. Human beings can only consume 3% of the world's water resources. More urgently, two-thirds of drinking water is trapped in glaciers and ice sheets. Meanwhile, in a crowded world with an increasing population, the demand for water continues to grow. Therefore, we should manage our water resources in a sustainable way to maintain human life and our continuously improving way of life. According to the United Nations, the fact is:

2 billion people are unable to access clean drinking water; 2 billion people lack basic health services; 3 billion people are unable to use basic hand washing facilities at home; By 2030, water scarcity may cause 700 million people to be displaced.

Therefore, the United Nations also considers clean water and sanitation as sustainable development goals to be achieved before 2030. This further drives innovative green technology solutions to cope with the bad situation of a future without clean water. These innovations include wastewater treatment and seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO). Learn more about these technologies here.

Let's delve into five specific methods for industrial water treatment to help achieve sustainable development goals.

1. Unlimited water resources

The rapid development of innovative membrane technology provides new possibilities for maintaining existing water resources and exploring new ones.

Wastewater treatment can remove pollutants and harmful substances, thereby achieving water reuse, circulation, and recovery. By reusing, recycling, and recovering water, we can significantly reduce overall water consumption to protect the currently scarce freshwater resources.

In addition, membrane technology has turned seawater and brackish water into feasible sources of safe drinking water. According to the World Health Organization, SWRO and reverse osmosis (RO) have particularly established themselves in some water scarce regions of the world. The SWRO application aims to comply with the ISO 10500 standard and specifications specified by WHO to produce completely clean and drinkable fresh water. SWRO application can produce extremely pure freshwater with total dissolved solids (TDS) levels below 10 mg/l. Learn more about SWRO here.

With water recycling and new feasible water sources, the world water crisis can be resolved. Severe water shortages, droughts, and polluted water may have become fears of the past.

2. Reduce waste and pollution

Water filtration reduces the amount of waste discharged and the pollution released into the environment that damages the ecosystem. After filtering the wastewater, bacteria, viruses, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), and harmful particulate matter (PM) such as ash, soot, and unburned fuel will be significantly reduced. This is crucial for both the environment and human health. Although filtering technology is associated with relatively high capital expenditures, the costs associated with environmental pollution prevention and hospitalization for pollution related diseases can easily exceed this. Therefore, water filtration is not only beneficial to the environment and human health - it is also a profitable business.

3. Disease prevention

Although progress continues to be made in many areas of health, there is still a need to accelerate the pace. Untreated wastewater may contain pollutants, bacteria, and viruses, which imposes a heavy burden on the required acceleration. When untreated wastewater is discharged, it can pollute the environment and may lead to serious or even fatal human infections. Polluted wastewater can also cause food chain pollution. After treatment, wastewater can remove about 97% of harmful elements. Therefore, this can prevent diseases.

4. Climate Action

According to the United Nations, climate action continues to exacerbate the frequency and severity of natural disasters. Therefore, urgent measures need to be taken to address climate action and its impacts. Through industrial wastewater treatment, the emissions of PAH and PM that may cause climate change can be significantly reduced.

5. Underwater life

As reported by the United Nations, ocean acidification continues to threaten aquatic species, as well as the marine environment and ecosystems. Wastewater treatment is one of the key factors in the clean shipping industry, as it removes unburned fuel oil, ash, and soot from scrubber wash water, which would otherwise be discharged into the ocean. By reducing water pollution and pollution, we can protect underwater life.

Sustainable future water treatment is one of the key factors in the clean pollution industry, which helps to achieve sustainable development goals. In addition, these sustainable actions will have positive spillover effects on other areas, such as life on land. A healthier ecosystem will benefit the health of the Earth, wildlife, and humans. However, in order to achieve feasible long-term results, large-scale water filtration is necessary, emphasizing that all countries and industries must contribute.