Every year on March 22, people around the globe celebrate World Water Day to advocate for improved access to clean water internationally. To date, there are over 663 million people living without a safe water supply close to home, leading to families spending countless hours retrieving water from distant sources or coping with the health impacts of using contaminated water.
This year, the theme of World Water Day is “Wastewater.” According to the World Health Organization, over 80 percent of wastewater flows back into nature, polluting the environment and wasting what could be a recycled resource. By exploring wastewater and finding ways to safely manage and recycle it, a sustainable source of water, energy, and nutrients could be recovered.
Critical gaps in water and sanitation
For ECS members, wastewater treatment and efforts to improve access to clean water in the developing world is familiar territory.
In 2014, ECS partnered with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to establish the first Science for Solving Society’s Problems challenge, leveraging the brainpower of scientists from around the world to create innovative solutions to some of the most pressing problems in global water and sanitation.
