It requires clear commitment ...
Published by Ashantha Goonetilleke, Professor, Water/Environmental Engineering at Queensland University of Technology
It requires clear commitment and a change of mindset. Even the MDG targets did not look for safe drinking water for everyone. This underlines the challenge in ensuring that everyone access to safe drinking water. Needs prioritisation in the development plans for a country/region. There should less reliance of large and costly and expensive-to-maintain projects and instead opt for smaller, less costly projects. We should look for opportunities to use resources which are easily accessible. For example, a recent study in Australia found that the total stormwater runoff in most major cities exceeded the urban water demand in those cities. However, very little effort is being to reuse stormwater and instead there is continuing reliance on 'imported water' from outside the area and desalinated water. Technology is already available to reuse stormwater and does not require much additional effort.