Stockholm Water Prize laureate Professor Perry L. McCarty from Stanford University, USA says that people cannot afford to lose the water available because of pollution.
At the opening session of the World Water Week in Stockholm, he said that it is estimated that there are 300-400 thousand contaminated ground water sites in the United States alone, the cost of cleaning up is estimated at 750 billion dollars or even more. Remediation using microorganisms is rather a very expensive method to clean up the contamination.
So the lesson from the American experience is that to prevent water from contamination is more important than to treat it after because technological treatment can only solve part of the problem.
Perry L McCarty,Stockholm Water Prize Winner“My own research focus on technical areas concerning biological processes for waste water treatment and ground water remediation and that resolves problem in part. But nevertheless, they are the important parts, as they concern the fundamental part of ground water supplies, as well as the use of waste resources”, said McCarty.
Professor McCarty said ground water is very special resources. 98% of world water is represented by ground water. 50% of the world relies on ground water for drinking water supply. Good quality groundwater can make it easier to treat for drinking water and there will be no cost of distribution and easy to clean up.
Ground water is one of the most precious resources. Unfortunately it is often contaminated by unwise practices such as over use of pesticide or untreated waste.
Governments in developing countries generally say that “we can wait until we have developed to treat the problem”.
McCarty said it is true that surface water can be treated clean within months or years of efforts through pollution control. However, for ground waters, the time for natural flushing will take hundreds of thousands of years to millions of years, possibly forever.
He said to contaminate ground water is in fact eliminating the ground water as economic resources for the future.
Thus he strongly recommends the prevention of water contamination than treatment afterwards.
About climate change, the American professor also warns that in fact methane gas can also contribute a lot to global warming in addition to fossil fuel.
McCarty won the 2007 Stockholm Water Prize for his pioneering work in developing the scientific approach for the design and operation of water and wastewater systems.
McCarty's work has led to more efficient biological treatment processes, in particular anaerobic (oxygen-less) treatment systems for municipal and industrial wastewaters, biological nutrient removal and the development and use of bioreactors.
Professor McCarty has established the role of fundamental microbiology and chemistry in the design of bioreactors. He has defined the field of environmental biotechnology which is the basis for both small and large-scale pollution control and safe drinking water systems.
Being an environmental engineer, Professor McCarty has combined deep knowledge in physical, chemical, biological and microbiological processes and transferred the results into outstanding technical development widely used all over the world as the basis for design and operation of wastewater treatment systems.
The Stockholm Water Prize Laureate will receive USD 150,000 along with a glass sculpture, which will be presented on Thursday.
By People's Daily Online Stockholm Correspondent Xuefei Chen
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