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Water Management
 

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MIND MAGAZINE | Water is the most commonly used substance by human beings. Without fresh water, no one could hope to live longer than five days. Water is not only essential to our survival; it is also a part of us, 65 per cent of us to be more precise. Water is the undeniable source of life; but it is also the source of many conflicts. Many wars erupted to get its control, it carries deadly diseases if untreated, water forced great deportations and it floods coastal areas on an annual basis. On a smaller scale, there are a lot of people who don’t like its taste and we usually prefer to stay dry on a rainy day. Water is for the most part what composes the surface of our planet, mistakenly called Earth. Trying to control water is a thing that all the great civilizations did it the past to secure their power, and today, we need to do the same to make sure this essential resource is equally distributed and that our children will count on clean rivers and lakes.

After the Industrial Revolution and the subsequent movement of urbanization, water consumption dramatically changed. Today more than 80 per cent of North Americans and Europeans live inside cities; the need to bring fresh water to every house, apartment, store and factory is something that requires gigantic means. After water has been used, it has to be carried out, cleaned and then sent back to the nearest river.

In cities, a lot of people are concentrated in very little space. Water circulation in urban areas was the centre of much arm in the past because the used water was simply thrown out in the streets, causing viral outbreak and rat infestations. The great outbreaks of the Middle Age were caused by the generally bad sanitary conditions of urban areas. But today, things have changed and modern cleaning and distribution systems insure the safety as well as the availability of water, as long as it is carried out appropriately.
 

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Modern water processing facilities are now using extremely strict quality control systems, monitored by computerized processes. In order to transform water taken from a river to tap water, it must be cleaned by either filtration, precipitation, chemical neutralization or by a combination of those. Filtration is a process by which the harmful particles are taken out by being projected into a series of many screens – or filters – designed to retain predetermined substances. Precipitation is a longer process by which water is concealed in basins until all solid residues have fallen to the bottom; after the water is all gone the basins are then cleaned. The process of chemical neutralization of water is especially crucial in the summer time, where the heat makes it easy for diseases outbreak to start in water supplies. Alum and Chlorine are used to eliminate bacteria and viruses found in water.

After the water is treated, it goes through the system of distribution in which water towers and pumps are there to increase the water pressure in pipes. Then after consumption, the water is rejected in sewers and in most cases, but not every time, returned to the filtration factory before being injected back in the wild.

Of course, the whole process requires scrutiny and constant maintenance to make sure every thing goes smoothly. But when it doesn’t, heavy-duty industrialized water treatment facilities can cause great health hazards if problems are not detected on time. In Walkerton, Ontario, several people died in the summer of 2000 after the municipal water commission neglected to administrate the proper quantity of chlorine in the water reserve. Young children and elderly people died from a water borne E-Coli outbreak that also made many other people seriously ill. The bond of confidence was later restored after Canadian authorities implemented the most restrictive water regulations in the world and invested millions for improving the condition of water facilities in this country, that is – by far – the largest reserve of fresh water.

Not all countries can count on many lakes and rivers to ensure sufficient water supply, and innovative solutions are found to help their population. Where low rainfalls are caused by the presence of mountain shielding the clouds away, enormous nets are installed in high altitudes to retain the water straight from the clouds. Also, recent technological advances are now helping cities near seas or gulfs where only salt water can be found to improve a process known for ages. Solar power is now use to produce the heat and the power needed for distillation: The water is evaporated and so the salt is separated from the water. Finally the future of the coming generations will depend on decisions taken by us about how we wish to manage this precious resource. After all, human beings and water will always remain inseparable.


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