Water scarcity can cause widespread death and disease, and lead to the displacement of hundreds of millions of people worldwide.<\/p>\n
In this article, we highlight recent efforts by several universities to tackle the global water crisis.<\/p>\n
What is water scarcity? <\/b><\/h2>\n
Water scarcity can occur due to physical shortage, failure of institutions to ensure a regular supply, or a lack of adequate infrastructure.<\/p>\n
The UN reported that water use has grown at more than twice the rate of population increase over the last century, which has caused an increasing number of regions to face difficulty obtaining water from reliable sources.<\/p>\n
Since freshwater only makes up about 2.5 percent of the Earth\u2019s water supply, areas around the world are struggling to keep up with population demands.<\/p>\n
There are currently 844 million people living without access to clean water, which causes more deaths per year than violence or war.<\/p>\n
<\/b>Where do we get our water? <\/b><\/h2>\n
Of the 2.5 percent of freshwater available for human consumption, only about 1 percent of it is easily accessible, as much of it is trapped in glaciers and snowfields.<\/p>\n
Groundwater is the largest source of freshwater in the world, and supplies drinking water to over 50 percent of the U.S. population.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, due to the overpumping of aquifers, groundwater is being rapidly depleted in many parts of the world, including the U.S. Aquifers<\/a> are underground layers of water-bearing permeable rock or loose materials, such as gravel, sand or silt, from which groundwater can be extracted using a water well.<\/p>\n Groundwater is being depleted so fast that aquifers in India, southern Spain and Italy could be depleted between 2040 and 2060, while those in California\u2019s Central Valley, Tulare Basin and southern San Joaquin Valley could be depleted sooner than that.<\/p>\n Additionally, in the U.S., major freshwater sources including the Colorado River and Lake Mead in Arizona are beginning to dry up.<\/p>\n According to The Water Project<\/a>, some researchers believe that Lake Mead, which supplies water to 22 million people in the U.S., could be dry by 2021.<\/p>\n Though the numbers can be discouraging, there have been numerous efforts by universities to help relieve the water crisis<\/a>.<\/p>\n From filtration to desalination techniques, here are a few examples of the exceptional work that universities have recently achieved.<\/p>\n According to MIT researchers, one way to help solve the water crisis is by looking beyond freshwater.<\/p>\n The researchers have found a way to desalinate various compositions of brackish groundwater<\/a> — a type of groundwater that contains more salinity than freshwater, but not as much as seawater.<\/p>\n The amount of brackish groundwater in the U.S. is about 800 times greater than the total amount of groundwater withdrawn nationwide, yet less than 1 percent of the nation\u2019s water supply comes from this source.<\/p>\n So, according to the researchers, using even a fraction of the abundant brackish water in the U.S. could dramatically improve the prospects for water-starved communities.<\/p>\n \u201cThe U.S. has more brackish groundwater than fresh groundwater. And much of the world\u2019s fresh groundwater is being heavily used, to the point that many fresh water aquifers are showing signs of decline,\u201d said John Lienhard<\/a>, director of the Abdul Latif Jameel World Water and Food Security Lab<\/a> at MIT.<\/p>\n Lienhard and his team used thermodynamics, a science that deals with the relationship between heat and energy, to study how different compositions of brackish groundwater would affect the energy needed for desalination.<\/p>\n By doing this, the researchers were able to formulate a large dataset of information on the processes and requirements to desalinate brackish groundwater, as well a map of areas around the U.S. and world that have potentially usable brackish groundwater sources.<\/p>\n \u201cGrowing population and a warming and more variable climate poses unprecedented challenges for our cities, farms, and industry,\u201d said Lienhard.<\/p>\n \u201cSustainable use of brackish groundwater, through desalination, can help expand our freshwater supplies. This approach can be one component of an integrated water management strategy for the many parts of the world threatened by water scarcity.\u201d<\/p>\n Another method that could help water-starved areas, particularly in sub-tropical, or tropical regions such as India, is by using plant materials as a means to filter unclean water.<\/a><\/p>\n Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have developed a way to combine seed proteins from the Moringa Oleifera plant, a commercially valuable plant native to India, with sand filtration techniques to produce a simple and effective filtration mechanism.<\/p>\n The resulting medium is called \u201cf-sand\u201d and works by using opposite electrical charges.<\/p>\n \u201cSand is mostly negatively charged. The proteins from the Moringa oleifera seeds are positively charged, and most of the suspended contaminants (suspended clay or other mineral particles, bacteria, decomposing organic material naturally found in the environment) that should be removed from water to make it potable are negatively charged,\u201d said Bob Tilton<\/a>, the Chevron Professor of Chemical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering at CMU.<\/p>\n To prepare f-sand, Tilton explained, the water-soluble proteins are first extracted from the seeds by crushing them and soaking them in water. The resulting solution is then poured into a very thick, wet mixture of sand and water called a slurry.<\/p>\n At this time, the negative sand charge attracts to the positive protein charge, causing the proteins to stick to the sand, and subsequently, create \u201cf-sand.\u201d The excess water can then be drained out and the f-sand can be poured into a column<\/p>\n Then, to use the f-sand, one would simply pour water through the column, and the negatively charged contaminants would stick to the positively charged proteins on the sand grains, creating a simple and resourceful filtration system.<\/p>\n Tilton explains that f-sand will be easily adapted by local users, since the technique requires few tools and fairly simple work.<\/p>\n \u201cSystems could be set up to work at a very localized level, probably even at the individual household level,\u201d said Tilton.<\/p>\n In yet another creative way to help relieve our growing water crisis, researchers from the University of Texas at Dallas and Penn State University have developed a surface that can rapidly collect water molecules from fog and air vapor<\/a> and direct them toward a reservoir along lubricated microgrooves.<\/p>\n The \u201chydrophilic directional slippery surface,\u201d or SRS, was inspired by the process in which living organisms, such as desert beetles, pitcher plants and rice leaves, naturally collect and direct water.<\/p>\nUniversity\u2019s efforts to relieve the water crisis <\/b><\/h2>\n
MIT, utilizing brackish groundwater <\/b><\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/MIT-Groundwater.png\")
<\/p>\nCMU, plant-based mechanisms for water filtration <\/b><\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/CMU-water-filtration-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\nUT Dallas\/Penn State, water-harvesting technology inspired by beetles <\/b><\/h2>\n