Marana Water News: World Water Day

Each year World Water Day is about bringing attention to water issues around the world. There are close to 1.8 billion people that are drinking water that has been contaminated with water borne pathogens including cholera, dysentery, typhoid and polio. Beginning in 1993, the United Nations declared March 22 as World Water Day as a way to inspire people to start talking about water and take action to help make a different for those areas without access to clean drinking water or proper sanitation services. A few weeks ago, we did a story on some of the non-profit organizations that are working to address this exact issue. Check out that story here.

Each year there is a theme around the date, and this year’s theme is wastewater including ways to recycle and reuse this water. Here is a quick video showing some of the ways that water can be reused. There has been a lot of focus on the treatment and reuse of wastewater since water is such a precious resource and demand will only rise as we continue to grow. Our Water Director, John Kmiec, serves as the Vice President of the Arizona chapter of the WateReuse Association

They are focusing on ways to treat wastewater in an effective manner to be able to recycle it back into our water systems. There are some places that are already using recycled wastewater to water golf courses and parks, and to cool buildings. Currently, in Arizona, you are unable to have treated wastewater returned directly to the drinking water system.

There are several options for meeting a water demand issue including recycled water. The Arizona team explored how California has been working to achieve great results from these types of projects. The gallery below has several photos showing the projects and sites the team visited. They are learning how best to build infrastructure, manage the sites, and which treatment processes to use from those that have been leading the field.

On this World Water Day let’s try and focus on the global and local issues related to water. Access to clean water for billions is going to take a large effort, and there are organizations working hard to make that happen, but here at Marana Water we focus on providing a sustainable, reliable and safe drinking water system. For more information about World Water Day, click here. http://www.un.org/en/events/waterday/index.shtml