Water, Sewage & Effluent Mar Vol 30 No 2 | Page 10

WRC COLLABORATES
WITH INDIAN
SCIENTISTS

A Water Research Commission
(WRC) delegation headed by CEO,
Dhesigen Naidoo, the Departments
of Water and Sanitation and Rand
Water officials created a partnership for
research, with the Centre for Science
and Environment in Delhi, India.
The aim is to strengthen advocacy
campaigns and community engagement
and to share lessons of mutual interest.
Areas being explored include watersensitive design and planning (rainwater
harvesting, decentralised wastewater
treatment and faecal sludge/septage
management), water–energy issues and
climate change and green innovations.

RESEARCH
GOOD BACTERIA IN
YOUR GLASS

A glass of clean drinking water contains
10 million bacteria. But that is as it
should be – clean tap water always
contains harmless bacteria. These
bacteria and other microbes grow in
the drinking water treatment plant
and on the inside of our water pipes,
which can be seen in the form of a thin,
sticky coating – a so-called biofilm. All
surfaces from the raw water intake to
the tap are covered in this biofilm.

MELTING ICEBERGS
MAKE A RACKET

Bubbles gushing from melting
glaciers and their icebergs make
fjords the noisiest places in the
oceans, a new study of waters near
Alaska and Antarctica shows.
The underwater noise is much louder
than previously thought, researchers
found. This led them to ask how the
noise affects the behaviour of harbour
seals and whales in Alaska's fjords.
“The ocean ambient sound gives us
clues to the physical processes going
on, but it also is an important aspect
of the environment in which marine
mammals and fish live. Like teenagers
at a loud rock concert, the seals
and whales modify their behaviour
depending on the ambient sound
levels,” says Erin Pettit, a glaciologist
from the University of Alaska Fairbanks
Department of Geosciences.

8

Water Sewage & Effluent March/April 2016

FIRST EVER GLOBAL ASSESSMENT OF
HOUSEHOLD WATER TREATMENT TECH
WHO’s new International Scheme to Evaluate Household Water
Treatment (HWT) Technologies ensures that products used to
treat water in homes are effective in protecting health.
Globally, an estimated 1,9 billion people rely on water
supplies contaminated with faeces. This requires many to
use household water treatment (HWT) technologies to help
prevent disease and make water safe for drinking.
The global market for HWT products is now flooded. From
chlorination to solar disinfection, the options for purifying water
are endless. Manufacturers claim their products make water safe
to drink, but in low-income countries, where many of these devices
are essential, labs lack the capacity to verify these claims.
But this is changing. Now, the health benefits of HWT are increasingly
recognised and the need for independent evaluation is essential,
WHO’s Batsi Majuru says. It is estimated that when used correctly,
HWT and safe water storage can reduce diarrhoeal diseases by as
much as 45%, and save thousands of young children every year.
The International Scheme to Evaluate Household Water Treatment
Technologies was established in 2014 to independently assess the
performance of HWT products against WHO health-based criteria. Recently,
WHO released the first round of results on 10 HWT technologies ranging
from ultrafiltration to chemical disinfection and found eight that met targets.

MODERN WATER HOPES TO SOAK UP DEAL
British firm Modern Water has signed an agreement with Bilfinger Deutsche
Babcock Middle East to combine membrane and thermal desalination
technologies.
Modern Water’s forward osmosis (FO) technology will be used along with with
Bilfinger’s multi-stage flash (MSF) desalination plants across the Middle East and
Northern Africa.
The firms are looking to deploy the joint MSF-FO solution to an operational
desalination plant. The aim of this pilot phase will be to “demonstrate
the effectiveness of forward osmosis to osmotically dilute and soften the
recirculating brine of the desalination plant, allowing an increase in top brine
temperature, which crucially reduces both the thermal and electrical energy
consumption, whilst maintaining the same output,” the company said.
Despite having installed its technology in Gibraltar and Oman for municipal
water, Modern Water’s FO revenues have declined recently compared to its
monitoring division.

GLOBAL RISKS REPORT
According to the Global Risks Report 2016, which draws attention to ways that global
risks could evolve and interact in the next decade, water crises features highly.
If climate mitigation is about carbon emissions, climate adaptation is about water.
Climate change is water change. Urban heat waves, melting snowpack, devastating
floods, longer droughts, destructive wildfires, shrinking reservoirs, rising sea levels,
desiccating soils, declining groundwater levels – all are consequences of an increase in
carbon pollution and all can be traced to the loss or redistribution of fresh water.
Whenever we hear of climate volatility, we also mean water volatility, therefore climate
adaptation means preparing cities, farms, and industries for intensive periods of drought
and flood. Even regions experiencing unusually heavy rainfall will not be able to capture
and use excess water without additional storage capacity and more careful management.