COOLING TOWERS ENVIRONMENTAL MEMBRANES REUSE REVERSE OSMOSIS ULTRAFILTRATION WASTE MINIMIZATION WASTEWATER

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Abstract

We call it Earth, but it should be called the ﾑWater Planet.ﾒ Over three quarters of Earth is covered with water. The Earth contains 326 million cubic miles of water. (One cubic mile holds over 1 trillion gallons of water.) Truly, there is no shortage of water on the ﾑWater Planet.ﾒ So why is there so much concern over water conservation? The problem is not one of water volume, but water quality and distribution. Approximately 97% of the worldﾒs water supply is salty and unfit for direct human consumption. Only 3% of water is fresh, but 68% of that is locked up in the ice and glaciers in Antarctica and Greenland. Another 30% of freshwater is in the ground. Surface water sources, such as rivers, constitute only one ten thousandth of a percent of fresh water supplies. But river water is the primary source of what most people use. Since water is necessary for life, just like the air that we breathe, people should have the right to unlimited amounts of clean, sanitary drinking water. The worldﾒs increasing population, however, is stressing our limited supply of fresh surface and groundwater resources to the point of exhaustion.

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