Water pollution- a key to wastewater management Essay

Water pollution- a key to wastewater management - Essay Example Water can be referred as the lifeblood of socio-economic development of a nation. In recent years, climate change has displaced other environmental issues to become the world's number one problem.But the alarming water scarcity is an issue as important and even more immediate threat. The Earth, with its abundant and diverse life forms, including more than six billion human beings, at the 21st century is confronting a severe water crisis. A decade ago it was announced that by 2025 one third of the world population suffer this shortage, but that threshold has already been reached. Two billion people suffer from this problem and by 2025, that calculation could be double (more than four billion, taking into account the increase of the world population), unless there are changes in the trends of today. Demand for water is increasing rapidly, but its supply is limited, decreases and is affected by the deterioration of watersheds due to deforestation and erosion (Johnson, Revenga and Echeve rria 1071). The underground fluid extraction has caused declines in groundwater levels in India, China, Russia, the United States and Western Asia. The global population explosion, breathless advancement on the scientific front, the surge in standard of living of man, and his ingenuity in abusing scientific knowledge, all have placed accumulative demands on natural resources of water. Overlying on this is the water pollution problem which deeply affects the utility of available supplies (Stander 774). The water supply specifically comprises of that found in lakes, underground reservoirs, along with that is brought from afar by pipelines and canals. Some of it evaporates, some is utilized for farming and some passes to the ground. The remainder referred as run-off is liberated into surface streams and runs into the ocean. As suggested by Packman, â€Å"Of the 30 inches of average annual precipitation in the United States, about 8.5 inches, or 1.2 trillion gallons a day, is run-offâ € . This research attempts to explore the answers to the question that is since water scarcity is growing day by day, being an important cause of the issue, can improvement in wastewater management help in solving the problem? The main argument for the research could be that the waste water management can be improved while the other side focuses on the increasing industrialization which hinders the efficiency of wastewater management. So in order to investigate the answer to my research question, various sources are rhetorically analyzed and various views on the topic are generated. â€Å"Global Water Shortage: Will the Earth run out of fresh water?† This is a research paper written by Mary H. Cooper and serves as a comprehensive source for acknowledging the issue of water shortage worldwide. The article introduces the topic as a controversy that revolves around the most essential commodity for life i.e. water. The author thoroughly analyzed the issue and proposed that the re are several causes of water shortage, including the population growth, mismanagement of water resources as well as pollution. The author persuasively conveys that the in order to address the water shortage issue, there are less number of pragmatic technological solutions are available. So the ways suggested by the author to cut down demand include the conservation measures and letting consumers pay off the actual cost of the water utilized by them. According to author, water mismanagement has turned a large proportion of the fresh water of the world into a leading infectious disease source. And the sewage and the waste water treatment are referred as the main culprit. Although the source does not provide a single solution, but the pros and cons of the water management are provided (Cooper). â€Å"Water for the Future† This topic refers to a report by M. Packman. In the given report, the author had explored the various water resources available to the world along with the