The survival of mankind requires a Water Quality and Quantity Index (WQQI) and Water Applied Testing and Environmental Research (WATER) Centers

Abstract

AbstractThe survival of the human population requires policy changes regarding water management. Mankind needs real‐time feedback about water quality to respond to threats to the water supply from climate change, population growth, water intensive farming, industrial pollution and urbanization. With the growing scarcity of drinking water worldwide, proactive strategic thinking and planning is necessary. Investing in water quality and water quantity management ensures that the public health and economic benefits for all things related to water is maximized. By 2025, half of the world’s population will be living in water‐stressed areas (World Health Organization, Drinking water, http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs391/en/, 2016). “While the private sector has a key role to play in making innovation happen, government must provide three key public‐good inputs that allow innovation to blossom: investments in human capital, infrastructure, and research” (Pool & Erickson, The high return on investment for publicly funded research, Center for American Progress, 2012). Managing water quality and quantity is a worldwide concern that will require investing in WATER Centers. The feedback humans need to survive can best be described as a Water Quality and Quantity Index (WQQI). To create the WQQI, each country will need to create and operate a Water Applied Testing and Environmental Research (WATER) Center(s) to support public health surveillance of drinking water. Water policy makers need to keep in mind that water quality measurements should be unique to each community and determined by the actual threat to each community’s water sources. Utilizing a WQQI from many communities in a given country would be useful for national public health strategic planning. WATER Centers can improve the safety of drinking water and contribute to water conservation in community water systems worldwide. WATER Centers can facilitate the implementation of a WQQI. The Water Centers can form a global network that shares data and methods for best practices in managing drinking (potable) water. The United States is often considered as having safe drinking water. An examination of the community water systems in the United States reveals that this may be an inaccurate assessment. The testing and treatment of water in the United States is referenced in this manuscript. Water is life—and life on earth is linked to water. Our existence is dependent on water, or the lack of it, in many ways, and one could say that our whole civilization is built on the use of water (International Water Association, 2008, A brief history of water and health from ancient civilizations to modern times).