Sandia Addresses the Water Crisis
December 05 / January 06
Volume 3 Number 6
Great swaths of the world are facing severe water problems and researchers at Sandia are finding ways to solve them.
Experts agree that we face increasing challenges to our ability to meet future water needs. Global statistics are alarming:
—€ Only 2.5 percent of all water on earth is fresh water. The remaining 97.5 percent? Seawater.
—€ Currently, one-third of the world's population lives in water-stressed countries.
—€ As much as two-thirds of the world's population could be water-stressed by 2025.
—€ Water-borne diseases are responsible for 80 percent of illnesses and death in the developing world.
—€ 70 percent of all water used today goes to agriculture.
Closer to home, things aren't looking much better. Although the United States has sufficient water now, there are concerns for our future supply.
—€ Assuming continued per capita water use, 15 trillion additional gallons per year will be required in the U.S. by 2020 for municipal and light industrial uses.
—€ Fifty percent of our nation's future population growth is predicted to occur in California, Texas and Florida, regions already experiencing water shortages.
—€ In California, combined agricultural, urban and environmental demands already exceed average supplies by 326 billion gallons per year.
But there are solutions to these daunting problems, and many of them are coming out of Sandia National Laboratories. What does a national security laboratory have to do with water research? The answer is "plenty." Sandia established the Water Initiative as a way to focus research on a topic that many of us don't think of as having much to do with global conflict or national security. Worldwide, water issues are a fundamental source of conflict, particularly in volatile regions, such as the Middle East, China and Africa. Diminishing fresh water supply, the threat of terrorist attacks on our water infrastructure, and deteriorating water quality are serious issues that jeopardize our national security as well.
Sandia's Water Initiative coordinates the efforts of researchers across the laboratories to focus on key water issues. The program's goals are threefold:
—€ Safety—€”To assure that the nation's drinking water is free from contaminants, whether naturally occurring (such as arsenic) or introduced through human activities (toxic spills, etc.)
—€ Security—€”To assure that water sources and water distribution systems are protected from attack and have reliable systems in place to respond should an attack occur
—€ Sustainability—€”To assure a sufficient supply of water across a broad cross-section of simultaneous users now and in the future
Its success is largely the result of the laboratory-wide cooperation promoted within the program, as well as the strong national and international partnerships fostered through the Water Initiative. Key Water Initiative partners include the Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Water, the Bureau of Reclamation, the American Water Works Association's Research Foundation and the U.S. Geological Survey among others.
For more on Sandia's Water Initiative, visit their website at www.sandia.gov/water. For a review of how Sandia researchers are exploring high-tech ways to conserve water in the area of agriculture, please see the December 2004/January 2005 article in TechComm, "Saving Water the High-Tech Way" by Margaret Lovell.)
Leslie Britt is a writer for Technically Write assigned to Sandia National Laboratories
Copyright © 2012 | Innovation America