Journal of Water and Environment Technology, Vol.2, No.

1, 2004

Risk Management of Water Environment in New Paradigm

Yasumoto Magara

Professor, Environmental Risk Engineering Laboratory,

Department of Urban Environmental Engineering,
Graduate School of Engineering, Hokkaido University.
Kita-13, Nishi-8, Kita-ku, Sapporo 060-8628 Japan
[email protected]

ABSTRACT

The world population is expected to increases up to 8 billion by 2015. Most of the cities in the world are scattered
around the fresh water resource. These cities and villages have their own interests and they constitute a power order.
Therefore, we have been trying to harmonize these cities and villages in the usage of fresh water resource and the
discharging of wastewater as well, by using an engineering means of water treatment.

The water environments science and technology should recognize the limit of fresh water resource for the sustainable
development of the society, because the water service industries are the essential infrastructure of the community. In
order to implement an appropriate risk management it is necessary to identify the goal of environmental management
considering the social, natural and economical conditions. The energy dependent science technology should be
reconsidered to be less energy and more resource conservation engineering means.

Water supply and sanitation technology is not the sanctuary for the society, therefore more comprehensive water
management system should be developed by other sectors, such as food production industry, with concern.

KEYWORDS

Risk management, Fresh water resource, Cancer risk, Infection risk, Appropriate technology

INTRODUCTION

The world population has reached 6 billion in 2000. It is expected to increase up to 8 billion by
2015 as shown in Figure 1.

Generally, people tend to try to

improve their lives, however, with
such a rapid population increase, how 9

long the earth will be able to support 8

the lives of the people. In addition, 7
World population [billion]

many industrialized countries now 6

have problems such as rapidly aging
5
society and the tendency to have
fewer children. These countries also 4

try to establish new socioeconomic 3

structure, with service industry in its 2
center. It is the issue whether the new 1
socioeconomic structure can or cannot
0
promise a sustainable development of 1975 2000 2015
global system.
year
WHO defines the health in its charter Figure 1 Increase of world population
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 Journal of Water and Environment Technology, Vol.2, No.1, 2004

as follows: "Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well being and not merely the
absence of disease or infirmity." Paying the attention only to biological aspects is not enough when
thinking about people having their lives with dignity as human beings. Energy and metabolism,
which are essential factors for existence, are fully dependent on water. In the new century, it is
doubtful whether we can secure water, which is the minimum necessity.

Water is used not only in food production, but also in the secondary industry, third industry and in
information/communication industry. When we use water, we use its attribute; that is, we use the
dissolving power, transportation power, and heat property. Therefore, what we have to recognize is
that when we use water, its amount does not change, instead, it changes into wastewater with
different kind of attributes.

The water environment is one aspect of water circulation on the earth. Especially fresh water
resource, which is essential to our lives, has a constant amount of circulation: 150 × 1012 m3, which
circulates with a period of one week to 10 days, as shown in Table 1. Six billion people are now
using 150 × 1012 m3 of this fresh water, and 8 billion people will use it before long and 10 billion
people will use it in the middle of the 21st century.

Table 1. Distribution of available fresh water resources

River water River water
(km3 year-1) 100m3 per capita per year
Europe 2 900 4.2
North America 7 770 17
Africa 4 040 5.7
Asia 13 508 4
South America 12 030 38
Australia & Oceania 2 400 84
Globe 42 650 7.6

The fresh water evaporates from the surface of the earth and returns to the surface again as a rain.
Originally rainwater itself does not contain any contaminants, however, in the process of
precipitation, flowing, it takes some contaminants on because of the attribute of water. River water
cannot be used for drinking purpose without any treatment. On the other hand, ground water can be
used without any treatment, as long as there are no hazardous inorganic substances in the soil and
they don’t dissolve into the water. Except this clean ground water, most of the fresh water cannot be
used without any treatment for drinking water supply. If it is used without any treatment, it will
cause various kinds of adverse health effects, including infectious disease, and the troubles in using
water.

When we use water, we have to go to the place where there is water or we have to carry water to the
place, which it is used or needed. And, the water has to be processed according to its purpose of
usage. In sewage and industrial wastewater management system, we also use the properties of water,
because we remove unnecessary wastes from living environment or production site to provide water
environment for the necessary condition.

Most of the cities or villages in the world are scattered around the fresh water resource. These cities
and villages have their own interests and they constitute a power order. Therefore, we have been
trying to harmonize these cities and villages in the usage of fresh water resource and the discharging
of wastewater as well, by using an engineering means of water treatment. It means that we have
established an artificial water circulation system of using and discharging water within the huge
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 Journal of Water and Environment Technology, Vol.2, No.1, 2004

Rain
Land
Land
River & Lake
Fresh
Energy Water
Input Agricultural use
Sludge control
Storage
Transportation Sludge
Water use
(municipal& industrial)
Pollutants

Energy Output Ocean

control
Energy

Sludge Deposit
Treated Wastewater

Figure 2 Natural and man-made water cycle

natural water circulation, as shown in Figure 2.

SOURCE OF RISK

Impurities which exist in water include not only essential substances necessary for supporting the
life of living creatures, such as nitrogen, phosphorus and iron, but also hazardous substances, such
as arsenic and mercury, which are not just unnecessary for living creatures, but cause health
problems. Furthermore, in water, parasites and infectious microorganisms, and chemical substances,
such as agricultural chemicals, which may cause health problems to humans or living creatures, are
included. In addition, some substances, which do not cause any hazard to humans or living
creatures, but disturbs proper use of water, such as silt and sand making water turbid, are also
included. Impurities in water can be classified according to the effects and sources, as shown in
Figure 3.

The discharge of pollutants to the water environment is overwhelmingly caused by human activities.
There are various kinds of sources of pollutants, and the ones whose sources can be identified are
called point sources, whether or not the wastewater is processed. Among these point sources,
wastewater from domestic home, sewage is the biggest load to the water environment especially in
the densely populated areas like metropolitan areas. The wastewater from factories and offices is
another main cause of water pollution as a point source. The wastewater from factories varies in
characteristics, depending on the raw materials or production processes. In addition, the types and
load amount of pollutants discharged into the water environment vary, depending on the type of
process.

Unlike point sources, the sources of pollutants discharged into the water environment, which cannot
be identified, are called non-point sources. Non-point sources include fertilizers and agricultural
chemicals used in agricultural activities, which are discharged into the water environment along

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 Journal of Water and Environment Technology, Vol.2, No.1, 2004

EPIDEM IC DISEASE PATHOGENIC B ACT ERIA HUM AN ACTIVITIES

ACUTE POISON CYANIDE ETC. HUMAN ACTIVITIES

HEAVY METALS HUM AN ACTIVITIES

CHRONIC POISON SYNTHETIC ORGANIC S

SYNTHETIC ORGANIC S
PRODUCED IN TREATMENT

PHENOLS HUMAN ACTIVITIES

TAST E,ODOR
& COLOR
GEOSMIN & 2MIB nutrie nt s

HUMAN ACTIVITIES

Fe & M N
geol ogical propert ies

SUSPENDED SOLID
HUM AN ACTIVITIES

DAMAGE FACILITIES CORR OSIVITY geol ogical propert ies

Figure 3 Risks and their source in water environments

with irrigation wastewater, and substances in the atmospheric fall-out and pile up on the soil surface
and is discharged into the water environment along with rainwater.

Salts in the irrigation water or soil solution cause the adverse effect of salinity on crop production.
The indirect effect of sodium is more popular. Sodium competitively inhibits the absorption of
essential cations by crops. The increase in the sodium concentration in the medium brings about a
decrease in the potassium, calcium or magnesium concentration in crops, especially in the shoots.

Pesticides are different from other chemicals because they are used in open areas and in a large
quantity and used only in certain seasons and because pollution by the pesticides is liable to be local.
Pesticides are sprayed in paddy fields or crop fields. In general, only a small part of the pesticides
sprayed takes on farm products, however, most part falls on the surface of the earth of the fields. In
addition, part of the pesticides scatters during the spray and is carried outside the fields. Part of the
pesticides which have fallen on the soil or which have been directly injected into the soil evaporates
and passes into the atmosphere. As a result, a certain amount of the pesticides is distributed in the
atmosphere as gas or in such form attached to suspended particulate.

Pesticides in the atmosphere are caught by the falling rain and pass into the soil and the water
system. Not only falling rain but also photochemical reactions contribute much to the reduction in
the amount of pesticides in the atmosphere. Photolysis of pesticides is essentially the same as the
photochemical reaction in organic chemistry. For example, an organic phosphorus insecticide,
parathion, is known to be photo-oxidated from thiono compound (P=S) to oxon derivative (P=0) by
ultraviolet irradiation. Some of these photolytic products have stronger in persistency and toxicity
than the original chemicals.

It has become evident that soil particles containing pesticides flow into rivers from the soil surface
with rainfall and increases the pesticide load. Pesticides not only effuse from the surface of the soil
but also percolate downward through the soil and gradually effuse into the river. That is, part of
pesticides percolate downward to the underground with the percolating water and go out of the rice
paddy areas through the under drain. Although such pesticides as CNP and PCP have been regulated
further application in agriculture by their strongest hazard to human being as well as ecological
system in environment, the impurities of them are still major source of Dioxins in water
environment, today. From these evidences it is necessary to pay the strongest attention for the
behavior of pesticides in the environment.

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 Journal of Water and Environment Technology, Vol.2, No.1, 2004

TASKS OF RISK MANAGEMENT

The goal of the environmental risk management should be developed with scientific evidence of
that has not arise any adverse effect to ecological system of livings, including human beings and
their water usage. Needless to say, the goal of the environmental protection depends on the
technological feasibility of the risk reduction, which influences the environment in whatever way,
the feasibility of the applied treatment technologies, and the feasibility of the measurement. The aim
of science and technology is to accurately establish the goals of the environmental management and
to increase its feasibility.

The science, which clarifies an environmental factor influenced on the health of human beings,
started as epidemiology. In 1855, John Snow showed statistically that in the region where water
service with sand filtration was used, the incidence of cholera was smaller than in other regions.
Since then, the epidemiological method has developed with an aim to clarify the cases with
a high incident rate, such as infectious diseases like cholera and occupational diseases, or the cases
that which are easy to distinguish from other populations. Now, the epidemiological methods have
developed to be more sophisticated with the advancement of information and computer science. The
epidemiological method is very useful tool to set the goal of environmental management for
protecting public health from environmental organisms, chemical and physical factors. This
corresponds to UNEP/WHO Environmental Health Criteria. When WHO intend to set its drinking
water quality guideline, it puts an emphasis on the results of clinical studies or epidemiological
studies, which were found on human beings. However, we don’t have all the epidemiological data
of all the contaminants in the environment, it has a limit when trying to examine newly generating
synthetic and/or unintentional producing chemicals.

When there is not enough data on human beings, the results of animal testing are used. Among the
animal testing results, only the ones with mammal are useful, since the more accurate application to
human beings is possible. It is necessary to adopt a method by which we can apply the results of
animal testing as accurately as possible on human beings, while recognizing the scientific limitation.
To put in another way, we should reduce as many uncertainty factors as possible in application of
the animal testing results to human beings. The tolerable daily amount of exposure, as the goal of
environmental management, is derived so as not to cause any health problems with applying
uncertainty factor (not safe factor) for intra, inter species variances, accuracy of toxicological data
and severity of the effect. And its value of the gene toxic carcinogens is derived so as to be the
lifetime cancer risk should be around 10-5 as at the virtually safe level.

Since our society exists in the natural/man made water metabolic system, we are also affected by
infectious microorganisms, which are co-existent with human beings and animals. The emergent
and re-emergent infectious diseases, such as caused by E-coli.O-157, cryptosporidium, giardia,
have been recognized in many countries, because of a significant international human migration or
food distribution. As an example of this, as shown in Figure 4 water born cryptospordiosis occurred
in Ogose, Saitama, Japan.

Infectious microorganisms in water are scattered in the water, unlike chemical substances.
Therefore as long as they are not taken into human bodies, they are not hazardous. In addition,
many of infectious microorganisms have different levels of infection according to their life cycle.
Therefore, the risk that infectious microorganisms have an effect on human health is quite
probabilistic. The influence by infectious microorganisms is generally curable, not incurable like
cancer, because of the development of medical treatment. Now, the risk of infectious diseases is
treated as a yearly incidence. Since some infectious diseases are caused by food, it will be
appropriate to accept 10-4 a year of incidence caused by water. It means that the same waterborne
infectious diseases may be commonly occurred in big cities, they can be ignored because of

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 Journal of Water and Environment Technology, Vol.2, No.1, 2004

800

Case of Cryptospordiosis ( Case/day)

600

400

200

17 May 1 June 15 June 1 July

Date
confusion with food borne disease
Figure 4 Out break of Cryptospordiosis in Ogose, Japan

or its quite low incidence itself. As a result, such incident rate of waterborne infectious diseases
would be accepted socially.

TASKS IN RISK MANAGEMENT ENGINEERING

The background of the water treatment technology today lays the epidemiological study done by Dr.
John Snow. The water treatment technology has been developed to simulate the groundwater
cultivation process from surface water and self-purification action in surface water environments.
The aims of this technology are to stabilize organic substances, to remove suspended particles and
to inactivate infectious microorganisms, under a saturation limit of dissolved oxygen in the natural
water environment. However, traditional/conventional water treatment technology, such as slow
sand filtration, trickling filter, anaerobic digestion, requires a huge space, and now cannot secure
enough space in order to meet ever-increasing water demand. Therefore, modern technology has
changed into more space saving and energy-consuming technology, such as the coagulation
sedimentation rapid sand filtration, and the activated sludge process.

After energy, especially electric energy has become easily available, mechanical air blower has
resolved the saturation limit of dissolved oxygen, and also another limit condition of filtration
velocity in the natural environment has been resolved by making use of aluminum and chlorine
produced by electrochemical process. The trade-off of time and space of nature to resources and
(electric) energy has been established as shown in Figure 5.

The energy-dependent science and technology has brought a convenient life for human beings and a
new culture, including information. It also has made available chemical substances, which are not
exist in the natural environment and inorganic substances, which were rare and scattered in the
natural environment by condensing them. However, a part of such substances are discharged into
living environment as waste, and even inorganic substances are discharged with higher
concentration than natural condition.

In order to manage such pollutants, the technology, which concentrates on natural purification
process, is not enough, and another treatment technology, which can handle reverse-reactions when
above-mentioned substances are produced, is needed. In addition, because the concentration of
these substances is usually thinner than that in production process, the operation of concentration is
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 Journal of Water and Environment Technology, Vol.2, No.1, 2004

Clean & Safe

Advanced
Treatment 10-6
Palatable and Virtually Safe

Cancer Risk
Supplied Water Conventional
Treatment
Slow Sand
10-5
Improving
Filtration Hygiene
Quality
Increasing
Quantity
10-4
Hazardous

Environmental Standard
AA A B C/D
Clean Raw Water Polluted
Quantity limited Quantity not limited
Large space & less energy Less space & more energy

Figure 5 Risk management in drinking water services facility

also necessary as a unit process. Absorption and exchange, including phase transfer, and
oxidation-reduction of synthetic chemical substances, such as agricultural chemicals and heavy
metals, become an appropriate unit operation, and technological development, such as activated
carbon absorption, membrane separation, ozonation, and advanced oxidation process should be
implemented intensively.

However, most of these technologies are an energy consuming. From the global warming and global
resource conservation points of view, it is necessary to develop a technology, which does not use so
much energy. Therefore a water treatment technology, which does not use many resources and meet
a zero-emission principle, is needed. It should be the energy-efficient/energy-saving technology,
which may consume energy in material and chemicals development for treatment system, but
consumes less energy in total.

TASKS FOR RISK MANAGEMENT

Unlike the safe drinking water act in the United States of America or WHO drinking water quality
guidelines, water works law in Japan does not only provide that the people should always get a safe
drinking water. This law is enacted in order to achieve people’s right and duty specified in Article
25 of the Constitution, to improve public health by supplying safe and acceptable water in every
kind of water usages by a piped system. It can be said that its aim has been attained when seeing
that water service is widely spread throughout the country. We now need another new norm on
water service or drinking water based on a new concept.

Water service is the only way to supply water necessary for life and social activities; therefore, what
is needed for water service is to constantly supply water available for every kind of usage.
Therefore, water service should be run by a regional monopolistic facility and all of its activities
should be clear to all the service users. However, it is obvious that since water service exists in the
natural water circulation, it should be based on the size of water circulation in that region. The
country where water resource is limited; therefore, it should be controlled and utilized rationally by
developing the institutes involved in all the sectors concern.

It is true that water service is not the only one important service, but it is also true that water service
plays an important role as social infrastructure. In order to secure this, metropolitan areas has
secured technical, financial and human resources in order to make it function properly. Accordingly,

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 Journal of Water and Environment Technology, Vol.2, No.1, 2004

the level of water service in metropolitan areas is very high in the global standard with regard to the
amount, quality and charge. On the other hand, small scale water supply systems in rural area have
difficulty in securing financial and technological resources, and they have to make efforts to
function as social infrastructure, worrying about some risks of the disorder, such as the case of
Ogose, of the system. Therefore the solidarity among all of water supply agencies should be
encouraged to provide safe and palatable water not in the metropolitan area but also in the rural
area.

The source of burdens to water environment is not only caused by human activities, but also caused
by harmful substances in soil in the process of water circulation, including groundwater and hot
spring. Pollution caused by geological factors, such as arsenic, fluoride, boron, or antimony,
inorganic hazardous substances occurs nationwide, and it prevents effective use of water resource.
There have not been so many studies on such problems, because the system for groundwater use or
for countermeasures against influential substances in the environment has not been enough. Since
30% of a man-made water circulation is shared by ground water, and it is an energy-saving water
resource, the risk of the natural hazardous substances should be focused in the comprehensive water
environment management.

CONCLUSION

Since the population and the industries have been concentrated in big cities, main focus has been
put on pollution problems and wastewater control facilities. Therefore, the risk management of
water environment based on sound water circulation has been mostly ignored.

The science and technology for environment is not a mature science, as it is evident from the fact
that it started only after water pollution and air pollution became serious in the rapid economic
growth period in 1960's. From the viewpoint of water treatment technology, environment protection
and quality evaluation, so many tasks and further advancement of technology are necessary. Japan’s
environment protection system is at the same level of those of advanced countries such as Europe
and the United States. This system has been established considering the nature, culture, science and
technology and economic situation in Japan, although these factors were not assed enough.

The criteria and guideline for international environment protection is being established. However, it
is difficult to directly apply these criteria or guideline to developing countries or newly
industrialized countries. It is necessary for us to coperate establish an appropriate standard or
regulation for each country, considering the nature, culture, science and technology in each country.
Water resource is limited, but world population is increasing each year. Advanced countries,
including Japan, are dependent on developing countries for food and import water resource, which
is unevenly scattered in the world, as a part of food. Thus advanced countries are deeply involved in
global water circulation. Therefore, the solidarity among all countries and regions should be
enhanced to develop appropriate risk management system in water environment so as to realize that
“ the health for all with the sustainable development of the world”.

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