A Systematic Review on Advancements in Drinking Water Disinfection Technologies: A Sustainable Development Perspective

Abstract

The Sustainable Development Goal 2015-30, which is the blueprint to achieve a better and sustainable future for all includes goal number six, aiming at the provision of clean water and sanitation by 2030 worldwide. But still the rural areas in developing nations are predominantly facing the scarcity of pathogen-free drinking water, which creates an urgent need for research in the area of water disinfection. The paper presents a systematic literature review of the conventional and novel water disinfection techniques supported by a bibliometric analysis based on the data from Scopus and Web of Science data from the year 1980 to 2020 for all the disinfection techniques. The novel and latest water disinfection technology in the literature studied by few researchers are also discussed and it can be concluded that the research related to these latest technologies is fewer and real-life usage is very scanty. The detailed literature review indicates the need for novel, decentralized, low-cost water disinfection technology for providing clean and pathogen-free water to all, overcoming the problems related to access of safe drinking water to rural communities. The paper also identifies the research gaps related to new technologies for water disinfection which needs to addressed in further studies.