Smart Water business intelligence week 02/09/2024
Market
The number of violent incidents related to water resources worldwide has increased dramatically in recent years, according to a new study. The Pacific Institute’s annual Water Conflict Chronology report shows that there were 347 cases of armed conflict related to water in 2023, compared to 231 in 2022:
Water-Related Conflict On The Rise Across The World, Study Finds
Technology
Much smaller than the diameter of an average human hair, nanoplastics are invisible to the naked eye. Linked to cardiovascular and respiratory diseases in humans, nanoplastics continue to accumulate, largely unnoticed, in bodies of water around the world. The challenge remains to develop a cost-effective solution to get rid of nanoplastics while leaving clean water. Recently, researchers at the University of Missouri have created a new liquid solution that removes more than 98% of these microscopic plastic particles from water:
Mizzou scientists achieve more than 98% efficiency removing nanoplastics from water
Regulation
In half of the world’s countries, one or more types of freshwater ecosystems are degraded, including rivers, lakes, and aquifers. River flows have declined dramatically, surface water bodies are shrinking or disappearing, surface water is increasingly polluted, and water management is failing. These are some of the findings of three reports on progress on freshwater, published by UN-Water and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP):
UN report half the world’s countries have degraded freshwater systems
Financing
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has awarded more than $7.3 million in grants to California to support four drinking water systems in communities facing the impacts of climate change: