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These impacts continue to grow. Global populations are increas-
ing rapidly and will reach between nine and 11 billion in 2050,
and as population increases so does the production of waste
water and the number of people vulnerable to the impacts of se-
vere wastewater pollution. Almost 900 million people currently
lack access to safe drinking water, and an estimated 2.6 billion
people lack access to basic sanitation (WHO/UNICEF, 2010).
Lack of capacity to manage wastewater not only compromises
the natural capacity of marine and aquatic ecosystems to as-
similate pollutants, but also causes the loss of a whole array of
benefits provided by our waterways and coasts that we too often
take for granted; safe water for drinking, washing and hygiene,
water for irrigating our crops and producing our food and for
sustaining ecosystems and the services they provide. The fi-
nancial, environmental and societal costs in terms of human
health, mortality and morbidity and decreased environmental
health are projected to increase dramatically unless wastewater
management is given very high priority and dealt with urgently.
Wastewater – spent or used water from farms, communities, villages, homes, urban ar-
eas or industry may contain harmful dissolved or suspended matter. Unregulated dis-
charge of wastewater undermines biological diversity, natural resilience and the capacity
of the planet to provide fundamental ecosystem services, impacting both rural and urban
populations and affecting sectors from health to industry, agriculture, fisheries and tour-
ism. In all cases, it is the poorest that are the most severely affected.
PART I
THE CHALLENGES OF WASTE-
WATER ANDWASTEWATER
MANAGEMENT
In this part of the report we will present some of the key chal-
lenges that the unregulated discharge of wastewater presents.