Averting ‘Day Zero’ is one of the most challenging issues of the 21st Century. Prudent water management, controlling water wastage & providing safe drinking water to all are the primary mottos of the entire world. The high cost of water in many developing countries affects jobs and the country’s economic choices. Lack of availability of fresh water may also seize the pace of automation & digitization in a country.
Water Shortages Threaten Jobs & Economic Growth, Seizes Automation
In the past 50 years the global human population has doubled, the extraction of materials has tripled, primary energy production has more than tripled, the economy has grown nearly fivefold and global trade has grown tenfold (UNEP, 2019c). An estimated three out of four jobs globally are dependent on water.
Shortages and lack of access to water are likely to limit economic growth in the coming decades. About 1.5 billion people – half the world’s workers are employed in industries that are heavily dependent on water. Institutions at every level need to keep pace with the speed and scale of technological innovation in the digital space. Due to the digitalization of society & economy and advances in artificial intelligence, more and more varieties of microchips are in demand. The facilities responsible for manufacturing these microchips are known as “semiconductor fabrication plants” or “fabs”.
Semiconductors are essential components in technology products, including computers and smart phones. Worldwide, the demand for chips is going to increase with the wider adoption of solar energy and connected devices. Semiconductor manufacturing, however, requires large volumes of ultra-pure water to avoid the contamination of electronic devices. A typical semiconductor manufacturing facility or Chip fab uses 2 to 4 million gallons of ultra-pure water per day, which can be extended up to 10 million gallons of water per day for a large chip fab, which is equivalent to the water consumption of roughly 3,00,000 households. In 2015, Intel, the largest semiconductor company by market capitalization, used 9 billion gallons of water.
The next world war will be for “Pure Drinking Water”
Around 97% of water in this Earth is saline water that makes up our oceans. Easily accessible freshwater is a very small fraction of global water supply and is available to us through lakes and rivers. The remaining freshwater is either locked away in glaciers or under the ground. On a global scale, we have about $1.062 \times 10^{16}\text{ m}^3$ of available freshwater.
The fact is that Pure Drinking Water is going to be rare commodity on this earth. Reason is our indifferent attitude to handle this natural resource. We waste a huge amount of water in different ways, also in the name of water purification. A study shows that 70% of water is just drained out through so called Reverse Osmosis (RO) water purifier process which being widely used now. As per directives of National Green Tribunal (NGT) if Total Dissolve Solids (TDS) in water is less than 500 milligrams per litre, a RO system will not be useful but will result in removing important minerals as well as cause undue wastage of water.
Plastic Pollution through ‘Single- Use Plastic (SUP)’ Water Bottle
Increasing health concerns, chemical contamination in groundwater particularly, Arsenic & Fluoride and unavailability of clean drinking water have led to the growth of the packaging drinking water market particularly the market for single-use plastic (SUP) water bottles. The manufacturing process of plastic water bottles alone releases tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year. As a result, the surrounding oxygen becomes contaminated. Plastic bottles do not biodegrade, so they will remain in our environment forever. When plastic degrades, toxic chemicals in the plastic are released into the environment.
Use of plastics, including polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles and multi-layered packs such as Tetra Packs, has an adverse impact on health and the environment. The global bottled water market reached a value of USD 283.01 Billion in 2021 and is expected to expand at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 6.7% from 2022 to 2030. In India, revenue in the bottled water segment amounts to US$5.76bn in 2022. The market is expected to grow annually by 4.52% (CAGR 2022-2026).
Globally, more than 7.7 billion metric tonnes of plastic waste over the next 20 years is expected, which is equivalent to 16-times the weight of the human population. According to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), India generates close to 26,000 tonnes of plastic a day and generates 9.46 million tonnes of plastic waste annually out of which 40% of plastic waste goes uncollected. 43% of all plastics produced in India are used for packaging, majority being Single-Use Plastic.