Water-Stressed Solutions

Mechanisms and Techniques

 Introduction

Water can be scarce for many reasons: demand for water

may be exceeding supply, water infrastructure may be
inadequate, or institutions may be failing to balance
everyone’s needs.
Water scarcity is an increasing problem on every
continent, with poorer communities most badly affected.
To build resilience against climate change and to serve a
growing population, an integrated and inclusive approach
must be taken to managing this finite resource.
 Water scarcity is a relative concept. The amount of water that can be
physically accessed varies as supply and demand changes. Water scarcity
intensifies as demand increases and/or as water supply is affected by
decreasing quantity or quality.

The Issue Water is a finite resource in growing demand. As the global population
increases, and resource-intensive economic development continues,
many countries’ water resources and infrastructure are failing to meet

Explained accelerating demand.

Climate change is making water scarcity worse. The impacts of a
changing climate are making water more unpredictable. Terrestrial water
storage – the water held in soil, snow and ice – is diminishing. This results
in increased water scarcity, which disrupts societal activity.
Women and girls are among the hardest hit. Poor and marginalized
groups are on the frontline of any water scarcity crisis, impacting their
ability to maintain good health, protect their families and earn a living.
For many women and girls, water scarcity means more laborious, time-
consuming water collection, putting them at increased risk of attack and
often precluding them from education or work.
Lack of data means lack of integrated management. Many countries do
not have well developed water monitoring systems, which prevents
integrated water resource management that can balance the needs of
communities and the wider economy, particularly in time of scarcity.
The Way Forward
Water has to be treated as a scarce resource. Integrated water resources management (IWRM) provides
a broad framework for governments to align water use patterns with the needs and demands of different
users, including the environment.
IWRM can control water stress. When a territory withdraws 25 per cent or more of its renewable
freshwater resources it is said to be ‘water-stressed’. IWRM can control water stress by measures such as
reducing losses from water distribution systems, safe wastewater reuse, desalination and appropriate
water allocation.
Data, technology and communications have a critical role. IWRM depends on: good quality data on
water resources; water-saving, green and hybrid technologies, particularly in industry and agriculture;
and awareness campaigns to reduce the use of water in households and encourage sustainable diets and
consumption.
Groundwater is part of the solution. Exploring, protecting and sustainably using groundwater will be
central to surviving and adapting to climate change and meeting the needs of a growing population.
Methods of Combating Water Scarcity
Desalination is the process by which the dissolved mineral salts in water are
removed. Currently, this process, applied to seawater, is one of the most used to
obtain fresh water for human consumption or agricultural purposes.
Desalination occurs naturally during the water cycle: The evaporation of
seawater leaves salt behind and forms clouds that give rise to rain. Aristotle
observed that evaporated and condensed seawater would turn into fresh water, and
Da Vinci realised that it was easy to obtain using a still.
Over the following centuries seawater desalination was used particularly on
boats and submarines to provide the crew with fresh water during long
trips. However, this process was not available on a large scale until the industrial
revolution and, especially, not until the development of desalination plants.
 Desalination
Plants
Globally, according to a study carried out by researchers from the
Institute for Water, Environment and Health at the United Nations
University (UNU-INWE) in 2019, there are approximately 16,000
desalination plants in operation — spread throughout 177
countries — and altogether they generate around 95 million
m3/day of fresh water. The first country to adopt this process en
masse was Australia, a very arid country where the so-called
Millennium Drought, between 1997 and 2009, wreaked havoc. It
has plants in the main cities that operate through reverse
osmosis.
Saudi Arabia is the leading desalination country by volume,
followed by the United Arab Emirates, both of which are desert
countries and highly dependent on this process.
 Distillation, consisting of boiling seawater in a still, collecting steam and condensing it to
obtain fresh water, is the most obvious method for removing salt, but not the most
effective one since it consumes large amounts of energy. Below is a summary of the main
desalination processes used currently.

Reverse osmosis
It is the most used process and consumes less energy than the rest, as it is based on the use
of semipermeable membranes that allow the water to pass, but not the salt. These membranes
are made of ultra-thin polyamide, which can become contaminated with bacteria so the water
must be treated.

Solar distillation

Desalination Imitating the water cycle, it consists of evaporating seawater in large facilities with
roofs where it is condensed and collected as fresh water. Although the energy used is the sun's
heat, large areas of land are required.

Process Electrodialysis
It consists of moving the salt water through electrically charged membranes that trap the
salt ions dissolved in the water, allowing fresh water to be extracted. There are diverse
variants of electrodialysis, such as conventional and reverse.

Nanofiltration
It is a process that uses nanotube membranes with higher permeability than reverse
osmosis ones, which allows more water to be processed in less space using less energy.
These membranes are manufactured with sulfonated compounds which, in addition to salt,
eliminate traces of pollutants.

Gas hydrate formation

Gas hydrates are solid crystals that are formed by combining water with a gas, such as propane,
at high pressure and at low temperature. During the process, all the salts and impurities
present in the water disappear and as the temperature increases the gas can be recovered
leaving fresh water.
Process of Desalination
 Desalination is a growing need as the world's fresh water supplies dwindle.
According to a UN study published by the journal Science of the Total
Environment, combined with a responsible use of water resources, it may
be key to solving water scarcity in the future despite certain
disadvantages that should not be overlooked.
The water desalination process is not impact-free since the residue
resulting from the process is brine, wastewater with a high
concentration of salt and pollutants, which in many cases is discharged
Advantages into the sea and affects ecosystems. Specifically, the study quantified the
discharge of brine at 142 m3 per day. There is also a risk of seepage that can
and contaminate coastal aquifers.
Manzoor Qadir, co-author of the work, proposes "turning an environmental
Disadvantages problem into an economic opportunity". Several opportunities are cited in
the study: use the brine for aquaculture, to generate electricity or to recover
of Desalination the metals contained in it, such as magnesium, gypsum, calcium,
potassium, chlorine or lithium.
In addition, many desalination processes require heating water, pressurizing
it, or both, entailing a high energy cost. The solution in each case is to use
renewable energy, such as solar, to reduce the consumption of the
desalination plants. Another possible sustainable desalination option is to
use biotechnology, for example, by cultivating cyanobacteria that can
process seawater, forming a low-salinity deposit around it.
 UC Berkeley’s
Water Box
In October 2017, a UC Berkeley team headed down to the Arizona desert, plopped
their newest prototype water harvester into the backyard of a tract home and started
sucking water out of the air without any power other than sunlight.

The successful field test of their larger, next-generation harvester proved what the
team had predicted earlier in 2017: that the water harvester can extract drinkable
water every day/night cycle at very low humidity and at low cost, making it ideal for
people living in arid, water-starved areas of the world.

The trial in Scottsdale, where the relative humidity drops from a high of 40 percent at
night to as low as 8 percent during the day, demonstrated that the harvester should be
easy to scale up by simply adding more of the water absorber, a highly porous
material called a metal-organic framework, or MOF. The researchers anticipate that
with the current MOF (MOF-801), made from the expensive metal zirconium, they
will ultimately be able to harvest about 200 milliliters (about 7 ounces) of water per
kilogram (2.2 pounds) of MOF, or 3 ounces of water per pound.
Metal Organic
Frameworks
Omar Yaghi, who invented the
technology underlying the harvester, is
a pioneer in metal-organic frameworks,
which are solids with so many internal
channels and holes that a sugar-cube-
size MOF might have an internal
surface area the size of six football
fields. This surface area easily absorbs
gases or liquids but, just as important,
quickly releases them when heated.
Various types of MOFs are already
being tested to pack more gas into the
tanks of hydrogen-fueled vehicles,
absorb carbon dioxide from
smokestacks and store methane.
Mechanism and
Operation
The harvester is essentially a box within a box. The inner box holds a 2-
square-foot bed of MOF grains open to the air to absorb moisture. This
is encased in a two-foot plastic cube with transparent top and sides.
The top was left open at night to let air flow in and contact the MOF
but was replaced during the day so the box could heat up like a
greenhouse to drive water back out of the MOF. The released water
condensed on the inside of the outer box and fell to the bottom, where
the researchers collected it with a pipette.
The extensive field tests lay out a blueprint allowing engineers to
configure the harvester for the differing conditions in Arizona, the
Mediterranean or anywhere else, given a specific MOF.
The key development here is that it operates at low humidity, because
that is what it is in arid regions of the world. In these conditions, the
harvester collects water even at sub-zero dew points.
 The Future of the
Water Box
A new MOF based on aluminum, called MOF-303, that is at least 150 times
cheaper and captures twice as much water is currently in lab tests. This will
enable a new generation of harvesters producing more than 400 ml (1.5 cups)
of water per day from a kilogram of MOF, the equivalent of half a 12-ounce
soda can per pound per day.
There has been tremendous interest in commercializing this, and there are
several startups already engaged in developing a commercial water-harvesting
device. The aluminum MOF is making this practical for water production,
because it is cheap.
UCB is also working with King Abdul Aziz City for Science and Technology
in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and its president, Prince Dr. Turki Saud Mohammad
Al Saud, on the technology as part of their joint research Center of Excellence
for Nanomaterials and Clean Energy.
Pervious Concrete
Rainfall is managed through storm drains that direct the flow
to major rivers, but this can cause problems. These rivers can
divert the water away from sources that feed into local
underground aquifers. This can lead to a hydrological drought
down the line.
One of the solutions to this is using ultra porous concrete and
other surfacing materials that are strong enough for cars,
trucks, and pedestrian traffic, while also allowing water to
simply pass right through. When used for roads and parking
lots, this allows the water to seep into the ground below
while also removing it from the driving surface, all the while
providing a hard strong road for us to use.