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the past has led to deteriorating social and economic conditions
and ultimate geopolitical conflict. Management of water resources
will be come more and more institutional, as access to water will
constitute a measure of a nation’s status, wealth, and possibly
power.
Yet in such uncertainty one may find opportunity, since necessity is
the mother of invention and innovation, or Mater artiumnecessitas.
The authors of this White Book have attempted to describe water’s
many uses and needs from drinking and agriculture to industrial
and energy applications. They have identified the sources of
potable water including the technologies and styles of water
treatment plants that convert non-potable water to clean water fit
for consumption and use. They further analyze the waste-water
discharged by human civil use and industrial applications and
describe many innovative ways that this water can be purified and
reused.
The contents of this White Book should be considered a part of
common human patrimony, and what better venue to unveil it than
the Expo 2015 Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life, which focuses
on food and beverage and therefore indirectly, or really directly, on
water. Love and passion for food and beverage is a theme that can
unite us all and bring us together to discuss water intelligently as
a matter of basic human rights, a matter of economic and social
prosperity, a matter of geopolitical and environmental strategy, and
a matter of world peace.
The Honorable Richard Greco, Jr.
Former Assistant Secretary of the United States Navy
Knight of the Order of Merit, Republic of Italy
