Farah Nibbs, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Water is everywhere, but freshwater supplies are limited on many Caribbean islands. Rising demand and climate change are worsening water shortages for the people who live here.
Water shortages are one of the greatest problems created by a warming world. A decentralized water system is a compelling counterargument to the notion that bigger is better.
Palestinians fill drinking water containers at a distribution site in Khan Yunis, south Gaza, on Oct. 8, 2023.
Mohammed Talatene/picture alliance via Getty Images
As the war between Hamas and Israel grinds forward, two experts explain how Israelis and Palestinians have cooperated to tackle their region’s water challenges.
Good legislation has been undermined by poor planning, limited investment and governance, but recent water reports suggest the government recognises the scale of the problems.
We detected 180 contaminants in treated and untreated water. None of those found in treated water breached human health guidelines, but we should not forget about potential impacts on the environment.
Many of our rivers are overloaded with nutrients from fertiliser run off and wastewater. Algal blooms, fish kills and poor water follow. One solution? Nutrient offsetting.
The Carlsbad Desalination Plant in Southern California is the largest such plant in the Western Hemisphere, providing 50 million gallons of desalinated seawater per day.
Reed Kaestner via Getty Images
A heat wave that pushed California’s power grid to the limit, and the water system failure in Jackson, Mississippi, are just two examples.
Maria Khoza collecting water from the City of Tshwane municipality after a short closure of the a treatment plant caused by a sewage leakage in 2019.
Phill Magakoe/AFP/GettyImages
Are facilities that produce necessities like energy and clean water doomed to be ugly? Not when artists and landscape architects help design them.
Water purification at a modern urban wastewater treatment plant involves removing undesirable chemicals, suspended solids and gases from contaminated water.
arhendrix/Shutterstock.com
The solids from wastewater plants are usually dumped into landfills because they are contaminated with heavy metals. Now there is a way to remove the metals so the waste can be used as fertilizer.
Digital attacks can cause havoc in different places all at the same time.
Pushish Images/Shutterstock.com
Nuclear threats are serious – but officials, the media and the public keep a close eye on them. There’s less attention to the dangers of cyberattacks, which could cripple key utilities.
Aeration tanks at the Oaks wastewater treatment plant in New Providence, Penn.
Montgomery County Planning Commission
The ‘used water’ that flows from our showers, dishwashers and toilets isn’t a waste to engineers – it contains valuable materials. The challenge is recovering them and turning them into products.
Hull Peninsula and part of the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area.
Eric Kilby/Flickr
A few decades ago Boston Harbor was one of the nation’s dirtiest water bodies. Now, healthier fish in the harbor underscore that a multibillion-dollar cleanup has succeeded.
Many towns in Newfoundland and Labrador have issues with disinfection byproducts created by chlorination.
(Shutterstock)
Academic Officer, Water Resource Management Unit lead, Institute for Integrated Management of Material Fluxes and of Resource (UNU-FLORES), United Nations University