|
Book review |
Thames Water, UK
| The first 250 words of the full text of this article appear below. Images appear only in PDF or full-text views. |
The global need for a good supply of high quality drinking water is not only increasing with population but with a rise in income. The availability of such a supply of potable water is already uncertain over a large percentage of the world but the uncertainty is exacerbated by factors such as global warming.
The reuse of wastewater for irrigation is one solution to meet this need – where the world population is expected to increase by 2 billion in 20 years – but there are obvious concerns over health issues with the use of untreated wastewater.
The book is a selection of papers presented at the XXXIII General Assembly of the International Union of Geodesy & Geophysics, Sapporo, Japan in 2003. Topics covered include the production, treatment of wastewater noting its reuse potential. The survival of organic constituents and pathogens with the modelling of their movement in the soil environment is also reviewed. Case studies are taken from around the world.
One major conclusion, particularly for developing countries, is the need to move from the existing technology where wastewater is treated by costly, centrally located works with expensive infrastructures (i.e. a lengthy sewer network) to more appropriate locally sustainable solutions. Such a concept, it is suggested, would require new thinking by local governments who assume ‘western methods are best’.
Obviously, a considerable number of these papers concentrate on the polluting effects of waster water reuse on groundwater quality (e.g. nitrate, chloride, heavy metals, pathogens) but reuse also is able
