Water

Do not pollute

In order to prevent water pollution of industrial, household and agricultural origin, over these years many countries have enforced stricter and stricter laws that oblige companies and public administrations to take special care of the prevention, control and reduction of water pollution. New technologies and new products have therefore been developed and used to produce gods and services with little or no water pollution at all. Many international bodies, including the European Commission, have also issued a series of simple recommendations for a sustainable management of our water resources. These recommendations range from reforming the bodies in charge of managing the water resources to the definition of a suitable price for water in order to promote a more careful and less waste-orientated use of it. A sustainable use of water is actually based on not wasting it and on recycling it in productive processes: these practices may increase the availability and improve the quality of the water available in a place. The problem remains, instead, in those countries where these laws have not been enforced yet or where compliance with these laws is not strictly controlled. In this case, we hope that, aware that water pollution is often something that goes behind a country’s borders (if pollution gets into the water cycle, it can move to remarkable distances), the industrialised countries may find efficient methods to transfer clean technologies and suitable environmental laws to those poor countries that do not use them, either because they are too expensive or because they do not have the required knowledge and training. Such behaviour would certainly bring us closer to a sustainable use of the natural resource of water all over the world.