Page - 83 - in Clean Water Using Solar and Wind - Outside the Power Grid

© 2019 The Author. This is an Open Access book chapter distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which permits copying and redistribution for non-commercial purposes with no derivatives, provided the original work is properly cited (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). This does not affect the rights licensed or assigned from any third party in this book. The chapter is from the book Clean Water Using Solar and Wind: Outside the Power Grid, Gustaf Olsson (Author). doi: 10.2166/9781780409443_0083 Chapter 7 Used water treatment “Clean water is a great example of something that depends on energy. And if you solve the water problem, you solve the food problem.” Richard Smalley, American scientist, 1943–2005. Clean air and clean water are absolute top priorities when we talk about responsible energy development. Over the last few decades there has been an interesting development in wastewater (or used water) treatment. The traditional method of used water treatment has been centralised sewage treatment systems connected to urban water users by wide sewer networks. Now there is a remarkable development into decentralisation, and it has been recognised that centralised systems have their limitations. This becomes obvious looking at the need for water remediation in remote areas. Small-scale treatment must be both efficient and affordable. Water scarcity makes it necessary to reconsider the whole concept of sewer-based water treatment. Every drop of water is important. Sanitation is still out of reach for too many people, as mentioned in Chapters 1–3. Furthermore, both clean water and sanitation must be achieved in order to reach the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal Downloaded from https://iwaponline.com/ebooks/book-pdf/520710/wio9781780409443.pdf by IWA Publishing user