Warning that water would be among the most scarce resources in the future, Senior Project Advisor to United Nations University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability, Kensuke Fukushi on Monday said that recycling and conservation of water by adopting scientific methods was the need of the hour.
Mr. Fukushi, a Professor from Japan, is a part of a four-member team of the institute, comprising Giulia Roder, a research associate; Saroj Kumar Chapagain and Geetha Mohan, both research fellows, which is studying the issue pertaining to water for sustainable development in five south-east Asian countries.
In India, the team has chosen Visakhapatnam for their study.
Scarce resource
“Water is the most critical ingredient for the survival of an ecosystem. Heavy industry consume huge amount of water and this scarce natural resource will hit the industries economically as the price per litre would increase phenomenally in the future,” said Prof. Kensukem, adding that it was time that the heavy industries, academia and society at large came together to recycle and preserve water for the posterity.
Asked why the team has chosen Visakhapatnam for their study, he said the city has many heavy industries and the team is here to study the problems, give projections and suggest solutions.
“We want to design a win-win solution for the industry and the people living here,” said Prof. Kensuke.
Visakhapatnan has a number industries including the one dealing with ship building, steel and power and the team want to suggest technologies to recycle water used by the factories.
Cheap technology
“Many cheaper technologies, which are economically viable, are available now. Industries can use those to recycle water so that they need not buy the same at a higher cost, thereby contributing to water conservation,” he said.
Citing an example of Japan, Prof. Kensuke said in the early 1960s, the country faced a huge environmental crisis, especially in the coastal region, owing to huge intake of fresh water by heavy industries and pumping toxic waste into to the sea.
Toxic waste treatment
“After implementing new technologies, 90% of the industries are using recycled water and pumping of toxic waste has come down heavily,” he said.
