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Approximately 75% of Spain’s territory faces the risk of desertification, making it, alongside Greece, one of the European countries with the highest water stress, where water demand surpasses supply. This critical situation is worsened by the climate crisis, which causes rising temperatures, increased evaporation, and more extreme weather events such as droughts and floods. The recent catastrophic DANA storm in Valencia, which caused over 200 deaths due to an unprecedented amount of rainfall in a short period, highlights the urgent need for improved water management strategies.
The Bankinter Innovation Foundation’s Future Trends Forum report emphasizes the vital role of technology in optimizing water use and ensuring its availability and quality amid growing scarcity. Innovations include wastewater reuse, such as California’s indirect potable recycling system that treats and reinjects wastewater into aquifers, and building-level water recycling proposed by expert David Sedlak. Desalination, which removes salts from seawater, is increasingly important but energy-intensive, requiring integration with renewable energy sources for sustainability. Atmospheric water capture, which extracts water from air, offers solutions for water-scarce regions but faces challenges like high energy use and initial costs.
Improving water purification technologies is crucial, as over 2 billion people lacked access to safe drinking water in 2022, causing significant health and developmental issues. Advanced methods like membrane biological reactors and digital tools, including smart sensors for real-time monitoring, enhance water quality and distribution efficiency, exemplified by projects in Melbourne. Overall, technology plays a critical role in addressing water scarcity and adapting to the growing challenges posed by climate change.
On a planet with increasing water stress problems, technological solutions such as desalination or atmospheric water capture are key to guaranteeing access to this essential resource
75% of the Spanish territory is at risk of desertification. Together with Greece, it is the European country with the highest water stress, which means that the demand for water is greater than the amount available. This situation is aggravated as a result of the climate crisis, which brings increasingly higher temperatures and, therefore, more evaporation of water on the surface and more extreme atmospheric phenomena such as droughts and floods.
The recent tragedy of the DANA in Valencia, which caused the death of more than 200 people after the amount of rain that usually falls in an entire year fell in just three hours, has shown to what extent these phenomena can be destructive. The need to optimize water management is therefore more evident than ever.
In view of the growing scarcity and demand for water resources, the Future Trends Forum report ‘Water: our vital resource in check’ by the Bankinter Innovation Foundation analyses the key role of technology in optimising the use of water and guaranteeing its availability and quality.
Reused water and desalinated water
Betting on innovation can help capture and reuse more water. In California, for example, indirect potable recycling is making it possible to treat wastewater using reverse osmosis and
The expert David Sedlak proposes to evolve towards the reuse of water resources within the buildings themselves. It involves collecting water from rain, showers and even toilets to treat it and give it new uses.
Another technology that is becoming increasingly important in resource management strategies is desalination. Desalination plants take seawater and, by passing it through semipermeable membranes, they manage to remove salts and other impurities. A very useful system but one that also presents a challenge in times of climate crisis: it needs a large amount of energy. Combining the plants with wind or solar power generators is essential for this method to be sustainable.
Turning Air into Water
Another technological innovation worth keeping in mind is the capture of atmospheric water. This allows drinking water to be obtained directly from the air, a very useful solution in areas with limited access to other water sources. With this method, air is captured from the environment, filtered to avoid contamination and cooled until it reaches its dew point and achieves condensation of the water, which is treated to prevent it from absorbing unwanted materials.
The U.S. military uses this technology to ensure water supply in conflict zones. The Qatari government has used it in disaster situations. However, it is a solution that also has challenges to solve, especially its high energy consumption, operating costs, dependence on weather conditions and the need for significant investment for the initial infrastructure.
Water purification solutions
More than 2,000 million people lived without access to safe drinking water in 2022. This is a problem for people’s health and well-being, to the point that 1,000 children die every day from diseases such as diarrhoea. It is also an obstacle to economic and social development. That is why among the Sustainable Development Goals established by the United Nations is equitable access to drinking water, sanitation and hygiene. And technology aimed at improving water quality can play a decisive role in achieving this.
This is the case of emerging technologies for water purification. These include membrane biological reactors, which combine biological processes and filtration to achieve efficient removal of contaminants.
Another technological process that is important to achieve this goal is digitalization, which helps to improve efficiency in water distribution. Smart sensors and real-time analysis platforms enable early detection of problems so that solutions can be applied in time. In Melbourne, for example, a project has been developed in which water tanks are connected to centralized systems that optimize water storage and distribution, which helps prevent flooding and make better use of resources.
These are just a few examples of how technology has a lot to contribute to improving the population’s access to water. A resource that is scarce and that, therefore, we must learn to optimize in order to live on a planet with increasingly adverse climatic conditions.
