Water management - and ensuring an adequate supply for everyone - is one of the biggest challenges being faced by the UK. In a move by the Environment Agency, internal drainage boards could be given a bigger role in making that happen, helping to reducing flood risks to farmland and local villages in the process. This helps meet SDG 6, Clean Water and Sanitation.
An early warning scheme is proposed that runs ensembles of inferential models for predicting the cyanobacterial population dynamics and cyanotoxin concentrations in drinking water reservoirs. When the 10- to 30-day-ahead predicted concentrations of cyanobacteria cells or cyanotoxins exceed pre-defined limit values, an early warning automatically activates an action plan considering in-lake control. Implementing the proposed scheme for drinking water reservoirs enhances current water quality monitoring practices by solely utilising in situ monitoring data, in addition to cyanobacteria and cyanotoxin measurements. Access to routinely measured cyanotoxin data allows for development of models that predict explicitly cyanotoxin concentrations that avoid to inadvertently model and predict non-toxic cyanobacterial strains.
This paper presents an intersectional analysis of the gender-water-tourism nexus. Based in an emergent tourism destination, Labuan Bajo, Indonesia, it goes beyond an analysis of how women bear the brunt of burdens related to water scarcity, and examines which women, why and how it affects their daily lives. This relates to SDG 5 Gender equality and SDG 6 clean water and sanitation.
Living in a harsh, desert climate, Omani rural communities have developed locally-appropriate knowledge to deal with water scarcity. The aflaj taps into the natural water table and uses a gravity system to channel water through underground channels to villages. Traditional techniques of water management, represents a way of adapting to and coping with difficult climates but modernisation harms these traditional systems. This review finds ways for the aflaj system to respond to pressures of modernity and adapt to a multiple institutional framework to ‘transform’ collective water management, contributing to SDG 6.
How can innovations in chemistry, energy, and biotechnology jointly be applied in low-resource settings for the benefit of a community?
This LabLinks meeting combines the expertise in the applied biosciences of Trends in Biotechnology, Joule’s interest in both scientific and sustainability developments in energy, and Chem’s focus on basic chemical science with relevance to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
2016 first prize winner of RELX Group Environmental Challenge, Loowatt, developed a waterless and energy-generating toilet system that is clean and odourless. Loowatt's patented core technology and luxury festival toilet business in the UK is helping to transform the lives of communities in Antananarivo, Madagascar's capital, through access to quality sanitation and job creation.
The RELX Group Environmental Challenge, with a $50,000 prize for the first place entry and a $25,000 prize for the second place entry, is awarded to projects that provide sustainable access to safe water where it is presently at risk and/or access to improved sanitation. This directly assists SDG 6.1 and 6.2 to achieve universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water and access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene, for all. Find out more about the 2017 winners.
Climate change, population growth and rapidly increasing urbanisation severely threaten water quantity and quality in Sub-Saharan Africa. Treating wastewater is necessary to preserve the water bodies; reusing treated wastewater appears a viable option that could help to address future water challenges. In areas already suffering energy poverty, the main barrier to wastewater treatment is the high electricity demand of most facilities. This work aims to assess the benefits of integrating renewable energy technologies to satisfy the energy needs of a wastewater treatment facility based on a conventional activated sludge system, and also considers the case of including a membrane bioreactor so treated wastewater can be reused for irrigation.
The RELX Group Environmental Challenge is awarded to projects that provide sustainable access to safe water where it is presently at risk and/or access to improved sanitation. Projects must have clear practical applicability, address identified need, and advance related issues such as health, education, or human rights. There is a $50,000 prize for the first place entry and a $25,000 prize for the second place entry. This directly assists SDG 6.1 and 6.2 to achieve universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water and access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene, for all.
The International Water Summit (IWS) is a global platform for promoting water sustainability in arid regions by bringing together world leaders, field experts, academics and business innovators to accelerate the development of new sustainable strategies and technologies. Videos from the 2017 summit cover a wide range of technologies and innovations which support SDG 6 Clean Water and Sanitation and SDG 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities.
