Nanotechnology as Potential and Innovative Platform Toward Wastewater Treatment: An Overview

Abstract

Water is indispensable element that is needed for survival of life on earth. However, increasing competition toward water sources as a result of agricultural, industrial, as well as domestic users has resulted into sharp increase in stress on aquatic as well as wetland ecosystems. In addition, prominent climatic changes and natural disasters along with prolonged drought conditions also contribute toward worldwide clean water scarcity. It is being polluted by several toxic contaminants as well as industrial effluents mainly due to anthropogenic activities including population explosion. Even in current scenario, it is found that more than one billion people failed to get safe as well as reasonable drinking water. Insufficient drinking water quality is a foremost reason for global infant mortality. Also, food production might be severely decreased in the near future as a result of insufficient water availability. Thus, providing clean water at affordable price for the present and upcoming generations of the twenty-first century is a major challenge. In this context, there is an urgent need of nanotechnology-based innovative technologies for wastewater treatment over traditional ones. Overall, the present chapter summarizes the causes of contaminations of water resources together with the most recent innovative strategy for wastewater treatment using nanoparticles.