Sustainable water in the 21st century
This one-day conference was organised by the RSC Energy, Sustainability and Environment Division, as befits a global issue, hosting speakers who provided valuable insights into the topic from both the UK water sector and also from national, international and global perspectives.
At a global scale, the UN Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG6) relating to clean water and sanitation includes a target of clean, accessible water for all by 2030. As of 2015, 30% of the world's population does not have access to safe drinking water and 60% lack access to safe sanitation facilities. We have some way to go to reach our target, particularly considering that water scarcity affects 40% of the global population. By 2025, some 1.8 billion people are likely to experience absolute water scarcity and two thirds of the world will live under water-stressed conditions.
England's Environment Agency has reported that the country will be short of water within 25 years. The population of the UK as a whole is expected to rise from 67 million to 75 million by 2050. By 2040, more than half of our summers are expected to be hotter than the 2003 heatwave, leading to more water shortages and potentially 50-80% less water in some rivers.
With these dynamics in mind, each of the speakers focused on the importance of developing solutions to these intractable problems through the acquisition and interpretation of accurate chemical data; these data may then facilitate rational decisions on critical issues such as:
At a global scale, the UN Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG6) relating to clean water and sanitation includes a target of clean, accessible water for all by 2030. As of 2015, 30% of the world's population does not have access to safe drinking water and 60% lack access to safe sanitation facilities. We have some way to go to reach our target, particularly considering that water scarcity affects 40% of the global population. By 2025, some 1.8 billion people are likely to experience absolute water scarcity and two thirds of the world will live under water-stressed conditions.
England's Environment Agency has reported that the country will be short of water within 25 years. The population of the UK as a whole is expected to rise from 67 million to 75 million by 2050. By 2040, more than half of our summers are expected to be hotter than the 2003 heatwave, leading to more water shortages and potentially 50-80% less water in some rivers.
With these dynamics in mind, each of the speakers focused on the importance of developing solutions to these intractable problems through the acquisition and interpretation of accurate chemical data; these data may then facilitate rational decisions on critical issues such as:
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Presentation of the RSC Sustainable Water Award to
Professor Dionusios Dionysiou
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The first speaker was Dr Martin Padley, a Director of United Utilities, who drew out four particularly important issues affecting his company:
In the second presentation, Neil Dewis, a Director of Yorkshire Water, reviewed water use and water treatment past and present. The UK Government’s ‘A Green Future – the 25 Year Plan to Improve the Environment’ focuses on the polluter pays principle, and thereby brings additional responsibilities for farmers in overseeing environmental aspects of land and catchment management. He developed this theme into a discussion of the concept of sustainable landscapes, involving stakeholder partnerships including water companies.
Dr John Carstensen, Head of Profession, Climate and Environment at the Department for International Development, considered water issues relating to international development. He outlined the complementary approach that the two previous presenters had described to SDG objectives and went on to reinforce the importance of water as a resource and the detrimental impact that climate change was already having. He discussed the relationship between water scarcity and gross domestic product (GDP) alongside water security issues – including economic development and, particularly, urbanisation. He summed things up by stressing the critical importance of taking an interdisciplinary approach when seeking a resolution.
Dr Priyanka Jamwal from the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment in Bangalore discussed some of the practical issues facing quantification of water quality in India. The Indian water quality regulatory framework assesses quality and compliance using 1,245 monitoring stations. She described the rapid increase in the population of Bangalore over the last 20 years and discussed the benefits of passive sampling devices (some of which her NGO had developed with the University of Portsmouth), and the topics of citizen science and affordable sensors to make monitoring site-specific rather than generic. She also mentioned the importance of an interdisciplinary approach and highlighted the link between SDG6 and other SDGs.
Dr Rob Fuller a water sector adviser with WaterAid, the largest global NGO focusing on water, spoke optimistically about the achievability of SDG6. In his interesting talk highlighting the issue and consequences of unplanned urbanisation, he explained how planning in low income countries usually leaves a lot to be desired. He also discussed in some detail how remote sensing, chip-based analysis, citizen science and the increasing importance of 'utility on a phone' (using applications for payment and monitoring) will be playing an ever-expanding role in delivering SDG6.
The final talk of the morning was from Dr Graham Alabaster, Chief of Sanitation and Waste Management at UN Habitat. He explained the background to the development of indicators for the SDGs and the subsequent development of methodologies to capture both baseline and progress information. This itself is very much a work in progress, involving checking what methodologies and data are currently available and investigating discrepancies and mismatches between data sets that should be measuring similar things. He explained how helpful it was for professional bodies such as the RSC to engage and offer input into these tasks.
The afternoon session began with a talk by Dr Hannah Rigby from Imperial College, who described her work on the transfer of a number of organic contaminants to the food chain through agricultural land applications of wastes and the implications with respect to water sustainability issues.
Dr Tony Fletcher, an environmental epidemiologist from Public Health England, provided an interesting perspective on the formidable issue of perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) – especially perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA). His talk included some very interesting case studies on the problems surrounding the persistence of these chemicals in the environment and in humans.
Dr Caroline Gauchotte-Lindsay from University of Glasgow spoke on emerging contaminants in drinking water and wastewaters – including xenobiotics such as nanoparticles or microplastics, pharmaceuticals and personal care products. She considered analytical methods that are now being used to measure the concentrations of some of these moieties and provided several examples of published results together with their implications. She went on to describe how such considerations can improve the understanding of water treatment plant operation and how this might factor in when designing upgrades and monitoring strategies.
The penultimate talk was given by Anastasia Kaschenko, CTO and co-founder of Majik Water. She explained how the age-old concept of dew harvesting had led their SME on a journey of discovery and innovation, investigating how such a seemingly simple technology might be applied and prototyped in low-income countries. She went on to describe how the company realised they had produced a technology without a valid business model, and she discussed how grappling with this disconnect had pivoted the company’s business planning to concentrate on drastically improving the efficiency of existing off-the-shelf materials and components. They now aim to reduce the cost of high-volume air to water units and to compress the lead time between technology development and its application.
The final speaker of the day was the recipient of the RSC ESED Sustainable Water Award for 2018, Professor Dionysios Dionysiou from the University of Cincinnati. His presentation discussed contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) and the detailed chemistry of advanced oxidation processes (AOPs). He examined various benefits and disbenefits associated with a number of aspects and types of AOP, explaining the importance of considering factors such as matrix, cost, energy, treatment conditions, transformation products, radical scavenging, toxicity and waste disposal. Professor Dionysiou was presented with the RSC 2018 Sustainable Water Award by Dr Camilla Alexander-White, Senior Policy Advisor Environment and Regulation, Royal Society of Chemistry.
The proceedings highlighted the critical value of good data and evidence-based decision-making for achieving a future of sustainable water. Each of the inspiring presentations illuminated and reinforced strategies and tactics employed by the chemical industries.
Slides for the day's presentations can be found here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/snl0lq9cciii60x/Archive.zip?dl=0
- The colour of the water – in NW England, there has been a marked increase in raw water colour/ dissolved organic carbon (DOC) variability over recent years.
- Extreme weather – the frequency of such events has demonstrably increased over the last 25 years.
- Taste and odour – with customers tending to use these organoleptic parameters to self-judge the 'safety' of their water.
- The presence of geosmin (trans-1,10-dimethyl-trans-9-decalol, a naturally occurring organic compound with a distinct earthy flavour) and the use of granular activated carbon to counteract it.
In the second presentation, Neil Dewis, a Director of Yorkshire Water, reviewed water use and water treatment past and present. The UK Government’s ‘A Green Future – the 25 Year Plan to Improve the Environment’ focuses on the polluter pays principle, and thereby brings additional responsibilities for farmers in overseeing environmental aspects of land and catchment management. He developed this theme into a discussion of the concept of sustainable landscapes, involving stakeholder partnerships including water companies.
Dr John Carstensen, Head of Profession, Climate and Environment at the Department for International Development, considered water issues relating to international development. He outlined the complementary approach that the two previous presenters had described to SDG objectives and went on to reinforce the importance of water as a resource and the detrimental impact that climate change was already having. He discussed the relationship between water scarcity and gross domestic product (GDP) alongside water security issues – including economic development and, particularly, urbanisation. He summed things up by stressing the critical importance of taking an interdisciplinary approach when seeking a resolution.
Dr Priyanka Jamwal from the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment in Bangalore discussed some of the practical issues facing quantification of water quality in India. The Indian water quality regulatory framework assesses quality and compliance using 1,245 monitoring stations. She described the rapid increase in the population of Bangalore over the last 20 years and discussed the benefits of passive sampling devices (some of which her NGO had developed with the University of Portsmouth), and the topics of citizen science and affordable sensors to make monitoring site-specific rather than generic. She also mentioned the importance of an interdisciplinary approach and highlighted the link between SDG6 and other SDGs.
Dr Rob Fuller a water sector adviser with WaterAid, the largest global NGO focusing on water, spoke optimistically about the achievability of SDG6. In his interesting talk highlighting the issue and consequences of unplanned urbanisation, he explained how planning in low income countries usually leaves a lot to be desired. He also discussed in some detail how remote sensing, chip-based analysis, citizen science and the increasing importance of 'utility on a phone' (using applications for payment and monitoring) will be playing an ever-expanding role in delivering SDG6.
The final talk of the morning was from Dr Graham Alabaster, Chief of Sanitation and Waste Management at UN Habitat. He explained the background to the development of indicators for the SDGs and the subsequent development of methodologies to capture both baseline and progress information. This itself is very much a work in progress, involving checking what methodologies and data are currently available and investigating discrepancies and mismatches between data sets that should be measuring similar things. He explained how helpful it was for professional bodies such as the RSC to engage and offer input into these tasks.
The afternoon session began with a talk by Dr Hannah Rigby from Imperial College, who described her work on the transfer of a number of organic contaminants to the food chain through agricultural land applications of wastes and the implications with respect to water sustainability issues.
Dr Tony Fletcher, an environmental epidemiologist from Public Health England, provided an interesting perspective on the formidable issue of perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) – especially perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA). His talk included some very interesting case studies on the problems surrounding the persistence of these chemicals in the environment and in humans.
Dr Caroline Gauchotte-Lindsay from University of Glasgow spoke on emerging contaminants in drinking water and wastewaters – including xenobiotics such as nanoparticles or microplastics, pharmaceuticals and personal care products. She considered analytical methods that are now being used to measure the concentrations of some of these moieties and provided several examples of published results together with their implications. She went on to describe how such considerations can improve the understanding of water treatment plant operation and how this might factor in when designing upgrades and monitoring strategies.
The penultimate talk was given by Anastasia Kaschenko, CTO and co-founder of Majik Water. She explained how the age-old concept of dew harvesting had led their SME on a journey of discovery and innovation, investigating how such a seemingly simple technology might be applied and prototyped in low-income countries. She went on to describe how the company realised they had produced a technology without a valid business model, and she discussed how grappling with this disconnect had pivoted the company’s business planning to concentrate on drastically improving the efficiency of existing off-the-shelf materials and components. They now aim to reduce the cost of high-volume air to water units and to compress the lead time between technology development and its application.
The final speaker of the day was the recipient of the RSC ESED Sustainable Water Award for 2018, Professor Dionysios Dionysiou from the University of Cincinnati. His presentation discussed contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) and the detailed chemistry of advanced oxidation processes (AOPs). He examined various benefits and disbenefits associated with a number of aspects and types of AOP, explaining the importance of considering factors such as matrix, cost, energy, treatment conditions, transformation products, radical scavenging, toxicity and waste disposal. Professor Dionysiou was presented with the RSC 2018 Sustainable Water Award by Dr Camilla Alexander-White, Senior Policy Advisor Environment and Regulation, Royal Society of Chemistry.
The proceedings highlighted the critical value of good data and evidence-based decision-making for achieving a future of sustainable water. Each of the inspiring presentations illuminated and reinforced strategies and tactics employed by the chemical industries.
Slides for the day's presentations can be found here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/snl0lq9cciii60x/Archive.zip?dl=0
