10.1 Introduction
Water plays a crucial role in the society since food security and supply depends on an
irrigation system or rain falling directly on a field. Apart from the food security and
supply, other aspects where water is essential includes aspects of socio-economic
development and for the maintenance of healthy ecosystems. With increasing human
population, urbanization as well as living standards, water resources such as ground
water and surface water have been contaminated with pollutants such as organics,
partly because of the huge production and high usage of pharmaceutical and personal
cares.
The most critical issue concerning the portable water arises due to it being
scattered at various places and being unequal distributed. Also, places where this
portable water are found, they are extremely polluted or contaminated (Dubreuil
et al. 2013; United Nations World Water Assessment (WWAP) 2016; Gleick 1993).
Due to the scarcity and contamination of the portable water globally, the trends on
water demand indicates that more that 1400 million will suffer the detriments of this
crisis in the next decades (Dubreuil et al. 2013; United Nations World Water
Assessment (WWAP) 2016). The United Nations World Water Report (2016)
projected that by 2025, 1.8 billion people will be in the likelihoods to experience
water shortage as their daily normality. The faster rate at which population is
increasing (having an impact on rapid industrialization that comes with environmental problems) together with parameters such as global warming (having an
impact on the ecosystem and the environment) creates challenge in providing
sufficient and clean drinkable water (Kulshreshtha 1998; Shannon et al. 2008;
Tuzen 2009). On average, agriculture sector accounts for 70% (taken out of rivers,
lakes, and aquifers) of global freshwater withdrawals, while 20% is from practical
usage and 10% is from domestic and smaller industrial sectors (Tuzen 2009). Due to
the continuous clean water demand by the developing countries since the year 1980,
there world has experienced a yearly increment of 1% of freshwater withdrawals
(Shannon et al. 2008; Tuzen 2009). The issue of freshwater withdrawal intensifies
water shortages, thus negatively impacting job markets since about 78% directly
depend on water utilization (Kulshreshtha 1998; Shannon et al. 2008). The main
sources of water pollution arise from the constant contamination by a wide range of
organic and inorganic toxins originating from developed industries (Schwarzenbach
et al. 2006). The main culprit for the contamination of clean water emancipate from
the improper disposal and the extensive use of organic products such as hydrocarbons, detergents, carbohydrates, plasticizers, pharmaceuticals and personal products
(PPCPs), and organic dyes (Zhao et al. 2011). These organic pollutants together with
other water pollutants such as heavy metal ions, bacteria, and viruses are released
into the environment posing great threats to human health. All these stated factors
bring such an urgent need to find alternative ways to assist in removing pollutants
from wastewater, especially organic pollutants. The great danger of these pollutants
is that they pose great threat to the society due to their toxicity, carcinogenic nature
and non-biodegradability. These biohazards have large effect on the provision of
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T. C. Maponya et al.
Water plays a crucial role in the society since food security and supply depends on an
irrigation system or rain falling directly on a field. Apart from the food security and
supply, other aspects where water is essential includes aspects of socio-economic
development and for the maintenance of healthy ecosystems. With increasing human
population, urbanization as well as living standards, water resources such as ground
water and surface water have been contaminated with pollutants such as organics,
partly because of the huge production and high usage of pharmaceutical and personal
cares.
The most critical issue concerning the portable water arises due to it being
scattered at various places and being unequal distributed. Also, places where this
portable water are found, they are extremely polluted or contaminated (Dubreuil
et al. 2013; United Nations World Water Assessment (WWAP) 2016; Gleick 1993).
Due to the scarcity and contamination of the portable water globally, the trends on
water demand indicates that more that 1400 million will suffer the detriments of this
crisis in the next decades (Dubreuil et al. 2013; United Nations World Water
Assessment (WWAP) 2016). The United Nations World Water Report (2016)
projected that by 2025, 1.8 billion people will be in the likelihoods to experience
water shortage as their daily normality. The faster rate at which population is
increasing (having an impact on rapid industrialization that comes with environmental problems) together with parameters such as global warming (having an
impact on the ecosystem and the environment) creates challenge in providing
sufficient and clean drinkable water (Kulshreshtha 1998; Shannon et al. 2008;
Tuzen 2009). On average, agriculture sector accounts for 70% (taken out of rivers,
lakes, and aquifers) of global freshwater withdrawals, while 20% is from practical
usage and 10% is from domestic and smaller industrial sectors (Tuzen 2009). Due to
the continuous clean water demand by the developing countries since the year 1980,
there world has experienced a yearly increment of 1% of freshwater withdrawals
(Shannon et al. 2008; Tuzen 2009). The issue of freshwater withdrawal intensifies
water shortages, thus negatively impacting job markets since about 78% directly
depend on water utilization (Kulshreshtha 1998; Shannon et al. 2008). The main
sources of water pollution arise from the constant contamination by a wide range of
organic and inorganic toxins originating from developed industries (Schwarzenbach
et al. 2006). The main culprit for the contamination of clean water emancipate from
the improper disposal and the extensive use of organic products such as hydrocarbons, detergents, carbohydrates, plasticizers, pharmaceuticals and personal products
(PPCPs), and organic dyes (Zhao et al. 2011). These organic pollutants together with
other water pollutants such as heavy metal ions, bacteria, and viruses are released
into the environment posing great threats to human health. All these stated factors
bring such an urgent need to find alternative ways to assist in removing pollutants
from wastewater, especially organic pollutants. The great danger of these pollutants
is that they pose great threat to the society due to their toxicity, carcinogenic nature
and non-biodegradability. These biohazards have large effect on the provision of
262
T. C. Maponya et al.