{"id":39314,"date":"2021-02-09T07:57:28","date_gmt":"2021-02-09T05:57:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/?p=39314"},"modified":"2021-02-09T11:50:59","modified_gmt":"2021-02-09T09:50:59","slug":"half-of-global-wastewater-treated-rates-in-developing-countries-still-lagging","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/fi\/chief-editors-choice\/half-of-global-wastewater-treated-rates-in-developing-countries-still-lagging\/","title":{"rendered":"Half of global wastewater treated, rates in developing countries still lagging"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"smart_content_wrapper\"><p>A new study by scientists at Utrecht University and the United Nations University concludes that about half of global wastewater is treated, rather than the previous estimate of 20%. Despite this promising finding, the authors warn that treatment rates in developing countries are still very low. The study and its dataset were published Open Access in the journal Earth System Science Data. Humans and factories produce vast quantities of wastewater per day. If not properly collected and treated, wastewater may severely threaten human health and pollute the environment.<\/p>\n<p>The authors use national statistics to estimate volumes of wastewater production, collection, treatment and reuse. &#8221;Globally, about 359 billion cubic metres of wastewater is produced each year, equivalent to 144 million Olympic-sized swimming pools,&#8221; says Edward Jones, PhD researcher at Utrecht University and lead author of the study. &#8221;About 48 percent of that water is currently released untreated. This is much lower than the frequently cited figure of 80 percent.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The main problem, especially in the developing world, is the lack of financial resources to build infrastructure to collect and treat wastewater. This is particularly the case for advanced treatment technologies, which can be prohibitively expensive. However, the authors highlight potential opportunities for creative reuse of wastewater streams that could help to finance improved wastewater treatment practices. &#8221;The most obvious reuse of treated wastewater is to augment freshwater water supplies,&#8221; Jones states. Treated wastewater reuse is already an important source of irrigation water in many dry countries, particularly in the Middle East and North Africa. However, only 11% of the wastewater produced globally is currently being reused, which shows large opportunities for expansion.<\/p>\n<p>Source:<a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurekalert.org\/pub_releases\/2021-02\/uu-hog020521.php\"> Eurek Alert!<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A new study by scientists at Utrecht University and the United Nations University concludes that about half of global wastewater is treated, rather than the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8297,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":null,"_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":null,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5594,31],"tags":[4012,256,3996],"class_list":["post-39314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chief-editors-choice","category-environmental-news-en","tag-developing-countries","tag-wastewater","tag-water-treatment","wpcat-5594-id","wpcat-31-id"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/jatevesi_paasto.jpg?fit=100%2C98&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39314"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39314\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39411,"href":"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39314\/revisions\/39411"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}