Water Quality Restoration and Reclamation

Abstract

Achieving water security through availability of sufficient water with good quality for all is the main agenda of the United Nation Sustainable Development Goals by the year 2030. The constraints on water availability and deteriorating water quality through global changes threaten secure access to water resources for different uses. Main drivers among these global changes, which are responsible for changes in hydrological cycle, are rapid urbanization, economic development, population burst, land use/land cover changes and climate changes. Effects of theses global changes can be easily seen through the impacts that water bodies bring to the society in the form of flooding and draught, and most important polluted water bodies result in unhygienic environment/ecosystem and health risks due to emerging pollutants. Henceforth, sustainable water resource management is necessary to achieve the goal of water secure future. Despite recent progress in developing new strategies, practices and technologies for water resource management, their dissemination and implementation have been limited. A comprehensive sustainable approach to address water security challenges requires connecting social, economic and environmental systems at multiple scales. This chapter aims to first depict the current situation about water and wastewater especially in Asian countries, followed by brief sketch about outreach and challenges of the existing technologies and policy intervention to achieve sustainable water resource management. Finally, with some successful case studies, this chapter tries to highlight the importance of transdisciplinary research activities, which can bring overhaul changes in policy interventions necessary ingredient for achieving water security.