Blog Posts: wastewater

A new report commissioned by the High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy proposes a roadmap for economic recovery from COVID-19 that utilizes opportunities in the ocean economy and ensures investments help catalyze progress towards a sustainable ocean economy.

Water quality trading can spur more cost-effective reductions of pollution. But they're most effective when they have a strong driver, like a cap, and the new memo isn't as instructive as it could be on that front.

The combined effects of growing populations, rising incomes and expanding cities will see demand for water rising exponentially, while supply becomes more erratic and uncertain due to climate change. Water scarcity already affects more than 40 percent of the global population, and with climate change, this is projected to rise.

This year's World Water Day, which was held last week, focused on wastewater. Wastewater is a valuable resource in the...

Water’s usability doesn’t need to end once it's flushed down the drain. Rather, India can see industrial and domestic wastewater as a valuable resource from which water, nutrients and even renewable energy can be extracted.

On the latest edition of the WRI Podcast, we spoke with a Dutch politician leading the charge to make waste a thing of the past.

Florida's Treasure Coast has turned toxic this summer, as a foul-smelling algae bloom resembling guacamole has made some of the Sunshine State's beaches untouchable. One cause is the controlled release of water from an over-full Lake Okeechobee into local rivers that flow east to the Atlantic and west to the Gulf of Mexico.

Most of the Caribbean's sewage spews into the sea untreated, bringing with it pollutants like nutrients, fecal matter, oil and more. Part of the reason is that Caribbean governments lack data on how wastewater pollution affects ecosystems and human health, or what realistic solutions exist.

More than 80 percent of the Caribbean's wastewater enters the ocean untreated, spurring the growth of algae on coral reefs and increasing the risk of infections for swimmers, among other issues. While many have been aware of this problem in Tobago for more than 20 years, there's been little government action.

Four Chinese cities are pursuing systems that turn "sludge," the organic matter left over from treated sewage, into energy. The systems can reduce emissions, energy consumption and water pollution all while saving money.

While droughts, floods and increasingly rapid groundwater depletion are cause for concern, this year presents unprecedented opportunities to pursue better water management. Director of WRI's Global Water program Betsy Otto explains.