How can an engineered solution solve the issue of water scarcity?
Clean water is vital for life, however, more than 50% of the world’s population face water scarcity. Lack of clean drinking water and proper sanitation causes the deaths of approximately one million children every year. The lack of these services causes economic losses due to additional health care costs associated with hygiene and waterborne disease. Engineered nanomaterials in water purification systems may be a solution to this problem.Â
Population growth, natural disasters and environmental variability can increase the risk of waterborne diseases, and these factors are predicted to increase. This will intensify the issue of water access and highlight the social issues around water access, such as wealth and population density. The economic cost of water access issues results in costs to many systems including food supply and healthcare. Â
Some conventional water purification systems are designed for water decontamination and others for disinfection. However, these systems may not be efficient enough to produce safe drinking water or ensure proper sanitation, especially to scale. Â
Innovative water purification systems are needed, and they need to be cost-effective, efficient, accessible, and scalable by design. Nanomaterial-based technology offers a cost-effective alternative for water purification and sanitation. Improved approaches for water purification include: biomimetic membranes, Euglena, and engineered nanomaterials. Nanomaterial-based membranes can remove smaller particles and provide more surface area for effective filtration than conventional membranes. Another advantage of these membranes is their antimicrobial activity. Â
Nanomaterial-based water purification systems contain a membrane designed to kill waterborne pathogens, parasites, and inactivate cysts, and can be engineered to meet specific needs for water purification. A wide majority of these products are available on the market and can been created for individual users at a low cost. Â
Although nanotechnology has the potential to provide accessible water purification and sanitation systems to users with different needs, more research and development in terms of economic viability, safety, scalability, and aggregation of nanoparticles are required.Â
Adapted from: Khan, S. T., & Malik, A. (2019). Engineered nanomaterials for water decontamination and purification: From lab to products. Journal of hazardous materials, 363, 295-308.Â
 Questions for students:Â
- Describe the reason an engineered solution is required for this contextÂ
- Identify the barriers to adopting this technologyÂ
- Explain why more work on this technology needs to be undertaken to create impactÂ
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Key Words:Â
- Water accessÂ
- SanitationÂ
- EconomicÂ
- HygieneÂ
- Engineered nanomaterials Â
- Water purificationÂ
- Environmental variabilityÂ
- Social issuesÂ
- Economic costÂ
- Cost effectiveÂ
- EfficientÂ
- AccessibleÂ
- ScalableÂ
- DecontaminationÂ
- DisinfectionÂ
- FiltrationÂ
- AntimicrobialÂ
- PathogensÂ
- ParasitesÂ
- CystsÂ