Wastewater And Climate Change
Wastewater refers to water that is used to carry municipal waste flows from domestic, commercial and industrial flows. It is largely an under-regarded and under-regulated area in relation to climate change. However, mounting evidence shows that it is an important part of both climate change mitigation and adaptation, contributing to and being affected by the phenomenon. Let us start with mitigation. Only about 20% of water globally is treated, while the rest is discharged in its raw form vastly polluting the environment and releasing climate warming emissions. Wastewater contributes to 5% of worldwide emissions. Wastewater uses a lot of energy in collection from source, transport and treatment of influent (incoming sewage). This energy is mostly electricity or vehicular transport of which the system is powered by fossil fuels which are the number one source of greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change. WWTP works at Ruai, Nairobi (Picture:Edison Mutumba) When the was...