ABSTRACT
Water resources are becoming increasingly scarce worldwide. Global water consumption is increasing at more than double the rate of the world’s population growth. Population growth, pollution, and climate change, which are all accelerating, are likely to combine to produce a drastic decline in per capita water availability in the coming decades. Water pollution is a bigger environmental threat than climate change. Water bodies in many countries are seriously polluted. This does not mean that climate change is less important an issue. Adverse impact of climate change will make the water issues more alarming in time to come. History reveals that water has been used, misused, and abused throughout. We are yet to accept that water is a limited resource. Agriculture accounts for 70% of all global water use. It is worthwhile to mention that countries in general refrain to charge farmers full operation and maintenance (O&M) costs for irrigation water, let alone investment costs.1 Even for domestic water, people in very few cities in the world pay the real cost. Water issues are complex. There is a requirement for the availability of sufcient quantity of appropriate quality of water for different end uses. There is need for technological innovations to make the water technologies affordable, acceptable, and accessible for the masses. Technological interventions in water management will play an important role in dealing with the crisis. There is need to make the efuent treatment as an industry-driven process through technological innovations. There are challenges and opportunities.
