Sustainable Water Management-A Strategy for Maintaining Future Water Resources

© 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Water is a finite natural resource that is essential for our survival. Over the years the reserves of freshwater are running low and some regions in the world are faced with severe water stress. Climate change has impacted the pattern and amount of precipitation and the water shortage has escalated with rapid population growth and urbanization. As a result, we and the natural environment are confronted with a serious water shortage. Sustainable water management is a strategy for maintaining future water resources that include increasing water supply and â managing the way we use freshwater to sustain economic growth for current and future generations. This article aims to discuss the state-of-the-art of managing water supply and demand as a natural resources and what indicators are being developed to identify water scarcity worldwide. The article reviews the technologies that have been developed to implement sustainable water management at the community scale, demonstrated with case studies

Modeling of steroid estrogen contamination in UK and South Australian rivers predicts modest increases in concentrations in the future

The prediction of risks posed by pharmaceuticals and personal care products in the aquatic environment now and in the future is one of the top 20 research questions regarding these contaminants following growing concern for their biological effects on fish and other animals. To this end it is important that areas experiencing the greatest risk are identified, particularly in countries experiencing water stress, where dilution of pollutants entering river networks is more limited. This study is the first to use hydrological models to estimate concentrations of pharmaceutical and natural steroid estrogens in a water stressed catchment in South Australia alongside a UK catchment and to forecast their concentrations in 2050 based on demographic and climate change predictions. The results show that despite their differing climates and demographics, modeled concentrations of steroid estrogens in effluents from Australian sewage treatment works and a receiving river were predicted (simulated) to be similar to those observed in the UK and Europe, exceeding the combined estradiol equivalent’s predicted no effect concentration for feminization in wild fish. Furthermore, by 2050 a moderate increase in estrogenic contamination and the potential risk to wildlife was predicted with up to a 2-fold rise in concentrations