Drinking Water Quality for the 21st Century — New Technologies for a New Era

Abstract

The World Health Organization (WHO) ominously suggests that at current growth by the year 2025 the predicted world’s population of nearly 9 billion people would exceed the planet’s supply of drinking water. Conservation, watershed protection, and reclamation will become essential components of water management in our new millenium in order to meet the increased demand. Nevertheless, as our environment breeds more pathogenic organisms, there will be a wider disparity in the distribution of water resources as those countries with the technologies to battle the new threats to our water supply may be able to stem this shortfall. There are, however, approaches that can be taken now to ensure continued supplies of safe drinking water. The new technologies that are available to manage the quality of our water supplies are discussed in this chapter, and it is envisioned that some of these have the potential for global deployment that as part of a worldwide population stabilization progam will suceed in ensuring the presence of drinking water for centuries to come.