In 1950, with world population around 2.5 billion, there were just two cities (London and New York) classified as mega-cities because their population was more than 8 million each. In 2008, with the world population at over 6 billion, over 3 billion people lived in mega-cities distributed around the globe.
Migration to cities - Urbanization
More than half the world's people live in cities today.
Meeting the concentrated water needs of these large numbers of people has led to the rise of urban institutions whose sole focus has been the supply and delivery of fresh water and of urban institutions responsible for removal of dirty water.
Clean water removes dirty water
City dwellers use water differently than people living in rural areas.
In rural settings dirty water is left alone to either seep into the ground or evaporate into the air. Sometimes. to avoid it being a health hazard, dirt is added to the dirty water to absorb the dirty water and cover up its location.
In urban settings, however, the usual practice is to not allow dirty water to seep into the ground or evaporate into the air.
In urban areas, clean water is used to get rid of dirty water.
This increases the per-capita water requirements of city dwellers over people living in rural areas.
The most pronounced use of this practice is in the bathroom where water contaminated with human waste is flushed away by clean water.
Importance of Residential Water Consumption
Urban water is typically used for residential, industrial, commercial, and public purposes. In addition, minor amounts of water are used in urban settings for other purposes like fire-fighting, line-cleaning, and to make up system losses.
The largest amount of water is used in residences. For example, 66% of the total water, supplied by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, is used in residences of the approximately 15 million people living along the Southern California coast from Oxnard to San Diego.
This is 66% of an estimated 195 gallons per-capita per day. (source - paper titled "Determinants of Urban Water use" by W. Michael Hanemann).
It is estimated that over two-thirds of the residential supply (66% of 195 gallons per-capita per day) is clean water being piped in solely for the purpose of getting rid of dirty water!
Is there an innovation in clean water supply (like extracting water available in the local air) or in flushing away dirty water (like using composting toilets) - innovations that do not require the capital-expensive and costly-to-maintain water supply and waste extraction piping systems (both susceptible to leaks) of today?
Migration to cities - Urbanization
 |
| Source - wikipedia.org |
Meeting the concentrated water needs of these large numbers of people has led to the rise of urban institutions whose sole focus has been the supply and delivery of fresh water and of urban institutions responsible for removal of dirty water.
Clean water removes dirty water
 |
| Dirty and Clean Water Source - trashwater.org |
In rural settings dirty water is left alone to either seep into the ground or evaporate into the air. Sometimes. to avoid it being a health hazard, dirt is added to the dirty water to absorb the dirty water and cover up its location.
In urban settings, however, the usual practice is to not allow dirty water to seep into the ground or evaporate into the air.
In urban areas, clean water is used to get rid of dirty water.
This increases the per-capita water requirements of city dwellers over people living in rural areas.
The most pronounced use of this practice is in the bathroom where water contaminated with human waste is flushed away by clean water.
Importance of Residential Water Consumption
 |
| Source - westbasin.org |
The largest amount of water is used in residences. For example, 66% of the total water, supplied by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, is used in residences of the approximately 15 million people living along the Southern California coast from Oxnard to San Diego.
This is 66% of an estimated 195 gallons per-capita per day. (source - paper titled "Determinants of Urban Water use" by W. Michael Hanemann).
It is estimated that over two-thirds of the residential supply (66% of 195 gallons per-capita per day) is clean water being piped in solely for the purpose of getting rid of dirty water!
Is there an innovation in clean water supply (like extracting water available in the local air) or in flushing away dirty water (like using composting toilets) - innovations that do not require the capital-expensive and costly-to-maintain water supply and waste extraction piping systems (both susceptible to leaks) of today?
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