Issue Carbon for Water

Summary

Carbon for Water asks whether carbon nanomaterials could secure global access to clean water. Carbon-based nanomaterials can remove pollutants at the nanometre scale in both small and large volumes, enabling point-of-use devices as well as large operations and lowering the cost and environmental impact of desalination. In 2024 more than 2.1 billion people lacked safe drinking water, and diarrhoea linked to unsafe water, poor sanitation and inadequate hygiene claims about one million lives a year. Almost half of schools in sub-Saharan Africa and one in four healthcare facilities worldwide lack basic water services, and in poorer countries water is often recontaminated between collection and use. The purification market is forecast to grow from $40.6 billion in 2026 to $72.8 billion by 2034, but damaged filters could release nanotubes or nanofibres into water supplies and harm health.