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Wastewater Management to Environmental Materials Management

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Handbook of Environmental Materials Management

Abstract

Drinking water and sanitation has been recognized as the prioritized area of global development, but this sector is also coupled with enormous loads of wastewater generation. The challenges associated with wastewater management thus seem to be ever growing. Wastewater management is a key player in achieving future world water security, and the issues concerning wastewater and water quality have deep rooted connections with various other issues but not limited to the water, food, and energy-nexus. Inadequate/inefficient wastewater management can pose severe threats to ecosystems, human health, and economic activities too.

In this context, the current wastewater management scenario in the world has been elaborated in order to identify and understand the shortcomings of this sector. The reasons that have deprived most of the cities of adequate wastewater management are numerous such as aging, absence or inadequacy of sewage infrastructure, lack of wastewater disposal and treatment facilities, technological failure, ineffective operation, lack of maintenance, and so on.

Wastewater management not only needs immediate attention on a priority basis but should also be considered as merely a part of an integrated, full life cycle-based and ecosystem-based management system that encompasses all the dimensions of sustainable development. This calls for a shift from an isolated “wastewater management” to the “materials management” approach.

This approach emphasizes on the importance of the association between demands/consumption patterns and wastewater generation, and also accentuates on waste reduction throughout the production process. Environmental Materials Management (EMM) is largely being recognized as basically a policy approach which has a significant potential to attain green growth. EMM would be largely beneficial for the economy, environment, and employment related perspectives. Its policy principles will lead to the preservation of natural resources and/or capital, exercise of policy instruments, life cycle outlook, and multistakeholder approach.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Water Programme, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore, Karnataka, India

    Musarrat Parween

  2. School of Environmental Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India

    AL. Ramanathan

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  1. Musarrat Parween
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  2. AL. Ramanathan
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. of Chemistry and EVSC, New Jersey InstTech, 151 D Tiernan-NJIT Dept. of Chemistry and EVSC, Newark, New Jersey, USA

    Chaudhery Mustansar Hussain

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  1. Department of Chemistry and Environmental Sciences, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ, USA

    Chaudhery Mustansar Hussain

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Parween, M., Ramanathan, A. (2018). Wastewater Management to Environmental Materials Management. In: Hussain, C. (eds) Handbook of Environmental Materials Management. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-58538-3_72-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-58538-3_72-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-58538-3

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