ABSTRACT
Water, like energy, is a most critical natural resource, indispensable in maintaining life. The demands for water posed by the traditional manufacturing industry for instance, steel, paper and plastic are by no means the highest. Particularly in developing countries, industrialization, urbanization and uncontrollable population growth are leading to economic and socio-political pressures accompanying the growing demand for water. Their governments are largely inactive on the water front, as if they have failed to notice that freshwater resources are scarce and not easy to sustain. To save the relatively pure water resources for drinking, the Japanese increasingly use recycled drainage for lower-level water. Intelligent buildings in Tokyo and other Japanese cities are employing recycled water for toilet-flushing and similar purposes. The water crisis has crept up while the political leadership has been distracted by global warming, ozone depletion and other emerging environmental threats.
