Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in Potable Water Production: An Analysis of Green House Gases Emission from Chemicals and Electricity Usage in Water Treatment in Malaysia

Abstract

It is undeniable that we cannot live without water. Safe and clean water supply is crucial to human life activities. It is estimated that 80 per cent of all diseases and more than a third of death in this world is caused by using contaminated water. Constant effort that started in the 1980s has brought water services and sanitation to hundreds of millions of the poor population of the world. Among the efforts are the launch of Sanitation Century and International Drinking Water supply in 1981 resulting in the Mar del Plata Action Plan used by the United Nations. But do we know that to produce clean drinking water, chemicals and electricity are needed? Life cycle assessment (LCA) has found that the chemicals and electricity generation in the drinking water production has the potential of releasing green house gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, carbon monoxide and dinitrogen monoxide. Thus raising the dilemma between basic necessity and the issue of saving the world from the impact of climate change. The use of LCA as a tool to achieve sustainable development could detect weaknesses in any system studied. Analysis has shown that the electricity generation using natural gas fuel emits the highest green house gases such as carbon dioxide (95.26%) and methane (4.47%) while PAC contributes the lowest. This situation should be solved by using electricity generated from alternative sources such as photovoltaic and hydroelectric that emits less green house gases.