Luís Días Batalla,Herminio Baltazar Cisneros, UNIVERSIDAD POLITÉCNICA DE FRANCISCO I. MADERO, , rector@upfim.edu.mx
Abstract
Current population growth, urbanization, rapid industrialization and intensifying food production are putting pressure on global water resources. This presents a global threat to human health, environment and economy, with both immediate and long term consequences. Worldwide, almost 900 million people still do not have access to safe water and some 2.6 billion do not have access to adequate sanitation, 70 per cent of which live in rural areas. Future demands for water cannot be met unless wastewater management is revolutionized. Inadequate infrastructure and management systems for an increasing volume of wastewater are the main factors involved in the worldwide wastewater crisis. In Mexico, more than fifty cubic meters per second of rainfall, urban and industrial raw wastewater from Mexico City are disposed without treatment to the Mezquital valley in Hidalgo State, where the water is used for the irrigation of 100,000 ha of semiarid cropland since 1890, resulting in an increased crop yield and in environment and human health related problems.
Key words; Wastewater, Mexico, Microalgae, Membrane Bioreactors.