WATER SOS
The word water means so much for us! It would seem that water is a simple compound of H2O, however it is the basic element of life on the Earth. No wonder that during the process of searching for life on other planets the scientists are trying to find traces of water. Water has no nutrient value, but it is an integral part of mice and men. Plants contain 90% of water and the human body approximately contains 60-65% of water. The primary role of water in life of mice and men is due to the fact that water is a universal solvent, which facilitates chemical reactions. It means that water is essential for all life processes.
Water resources of the Earth are divided into two parts: 98% of salt and brackish waters (seas, oceans and underground sources) and 2% of fresh water. Not all fresh water is available for consumption, approximately 75% of fresh water is frozen in glaciers and polar ice caps, moreover 24.49% of fresh water is found as groundwater, another 0.5% is found in the soil as moisture. It comes out that rivers, lakes and other surface watercourses are the most available and the cheapest water resources, these water resources contain a little over 0.01% of the world`s supply of water.
Taking into consideration the primary role of water for life on the Earth, we are sure that the statement «Water is our most precious resource» has the sacramental meaning.
Nowadays a lot of countries have the problem with fresh water supply, with water quality deterioration and pollution of surface and underground watercourses. The main problems which affect the water quality in rivers and lakes appear because of the following factors: inadequate treatment of the domestic sewage, weak grip for the trade waste discharge, loss and destruction of catchment areas, the irrational location of the enterprises, the uncontrolled deforestation, the irrational farming methods, the use of primitive type of farming when after the harvest the land is left without treatment for more than 15 years and the soil quality is restored with the help of the natural vegetation. All these lead to the nutrient and pesticides leaching. The natural balance of aquatic ecosystems is disturbed and freshwater resources are under threat.
The analysis of the water consumption for the past 5-6 decades shows that the current year`s growth of the irretrievable water consumption amounts to 4-5%. The calculations show that on retention of such a consumption tempo, the population increase and the growth in production, the humanity could exhaust fresh water supply by the year 2100. Nowadays a lot of countries feel the lack of fresh water. And here we speak about not only the countries which have already had the problem with this, but also about the countries which had no problem with water resources before. Nowadays the demand for fresh water of 20% of citizens and 75% of rural people is not met.
Clients
There is an opinion that if all water resources were located evenly there would be no problem for people with the fresh water supply. Unfortunately it is not true; nowadays there is a global problem of the fresh water deficit. The following countries have this problem: Northern Asia, Middle East, the most part of Africa, Northeast Mexico, the most of the Western states of the USA, Argentina, Chili, South-west Europe, the islands in the Mediterranean Sea and much of the Australian continent. For the past 40 years the quantity of fresh water per person decreased by 60%.
Solution
The global economy processes push the counties with the fresh water deficit to find the solution to this problem. Most of these countries promote a careful attitude towards water, a deep purification and a subsequent use of waste water. In addition to this the leaders of these countries have no illusions these methods are the most effective to solve the problem of the fresh water deficit. Why else then spend millions of dollars for various desalination technologies of salt and brackish waters.
Statistics show that the desalination of marine waters is the most prosperous sector of the world economy. In the year 1990 the world`s desalination plants provided 4 million m3 of fresh water per day, in 2000 – 16 million m3/day. In 2017 the desalination capacity is 70 million m3 of fresh water per day. It is expected the in 2025 the desalination capacity will be 200 million m3 of fresh water per day.
