Abstract
Sustainable Development Goal 6 requires the provision of safe drinking water to the world. We propose that increased exploitation of biological processes is fundamental to achieving this goal due to their low economic and energetic costs. Biological processes exist for the removal of most common contaminants, and biofiltration processes can establish a biologically stable product that retains high quality in distribution networks, minimizing opportunities for pathogen invasion.
Highlights
The WHO suggests that humans require an absolute minimum of 7.5 L of water per day, while a minimum of about 20 L of water per person per day is recommended to ensure adequate hygienic standards
With a population of 7.5 billion, this works out to 150 billion litres of safe freshwater daily, globally. Much more than this is generally consumed in developed nations, while less than adequate amounts of safe water are available in some regions
Sufficient freshwater resources exist to meet global water needs, the major limitation is the lack of infrastructure in some regions for production and distribution of safe water
Summary
The WHO suggests that humans require an absolute minimum of 7.5 L of water per day, while a minimum of about 20 L of water per person per day is recommended to ensure adequate hygienic standards. Sufficient freshwater resources exist to meet global water needs, the major limitation is the lack of infrastructure in some regions for production and distribution of safe water. While physical and chemical disinfection processes may remain essential to reduce the pathogenic burden during water treatment, we believe that increased exploitation of microbiological processes for drinking water treatment is the most sustainable way forward for the global provision of safe water.
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