Safe, Secure, Sustainable Water
For those fortunate enough to have a municipal water supply, there was a time when one could confidently assume that when the tap was turned on, water would flow out and be safe to drink. Those days are gone.
- Water supplies are increasingly contaminated, the contaminates are getting increasingly difficult (and expensive) to eliminate, and more and more of those contaminates are slipping past treatment plants and ending up in drinking glasses and baby formula. In other words, the water supply is becoming unsafe.
- The power grids that run water treatment plants are becoming increasingly fragile, and cyber-attacks on water and power infrastructure are all but inevitable. In other words, the water supply is not secure.
- While population growth and increasing prosperity push the demand for potable water ever upwards, ground water and surface water supplies are static (or decreasing via climate change) and are already overtaxed. Seawater desalination seems to be the answer for coastal communities, but as commonly practiced, the environmental impacts are atrocious, and the cost is not easily affordable. In other words, the water supply is not sustainable.