Water is the next oil over which nations will fight wars. Severe water shortages already affect some 450 million people living in 29 countries, and analysts have predicted that tensions over water rights in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East could explode into violent clahses and even full-blown wars if governments do not manage existing water supplies more efficiently. Worldwide, 220 river basins are shared by two or more countries and the tensions caused by water scarcity will escalate in this century---the water shortage problems will be exacerbated by global warming and its associated unpredicatable weather patterns. In 2001, the CIA predicted that by 2015, almost half of the world?s population, more than 3 billion people, will live in "water-stressed"countries. How can communities that don't have millions of dollars to hire multinational engineering companies to build highly advanced (but also highly energy and chemical intensive) water- and wastewater-treatment systems? This book is full of practical, low-cost, effective, ecological and economically sustainable, environmental friendly solutions for communities. In the 762 pages (with 185 diagrams and 910 photographs), readers will be introduced to many types of ecologically designed and engineered water- and wastewater-treatment systems, which communities can build with locally available labor, expertise, and resources. Table of Contents and Chapters Chapter 1. Solving global water crises and restoring the environment with ecological engineering. A new paradigm for crafting solutions to global water crises. The significance of ecological engineering. Who will control the water? Privatization, corporatization, militarization, and globalization of water and water rights. Global water scarcity and water use in agriculture. Case study: integrated aquaculture, biological pest control, nutrient recycling, and wastewater polishing in Chinese rice paddies. Chapter 2. Introduction to conventional water-recycling and water-treatment systems. Water intake. Chemical usage and storage. Flocculating clarifier: Coagulation, flocculation, and sedimentation. Filter cells and sand-filter systems. Recycled-water disinfection using chlorine. Pumps and electrical consumption in conventional water-treatment and recycling systems. Recycled-water distribution system and pumping station. Control systems and control room. Reverse-osmosis systems in water-reclamation plants. Seawater intrusion in coastal aquifers around the world. On-site laboratories for water analyses at conventional water-treatment plants. Forest and watershed protection for cost savings in drinking-water filtration. Chapter 3. Introduction to conventional wastewater-treatment systems. The role of fossil fuel and electrical infrastructure in conventional wastewater treatment. Solids removal by coarse and fine screens. Grit removal in grit chambers. Primary sedimentation in tanks and clarifiers. Conventional secondary treatment: activated-sludge and oxygenation aeration. Secondary treatment in final settling basins and secondary clarifiers. Biological filters and trickling filters. Sewage-sludge production and biosolids processing in conventional wastewater-treatment plants. Anaerobic digesters, biogas production, and on-site power generation using sewage sludge. Disinfection of treated wastewater effluent by chlorination, ozonation, and UV radiation. Sewers and pipe systems in conventional wastewater-treatment plants. Chapter 4. Ponds and aquaculture in ecological wastewater-treatment systems. Ponds in cost-effective sewage-treatment technology for small, rural, and remote communities. Models of pond hydrodynamics and biochemical processes in the context of treatment and purification kinetics. Pond designs. Small municipal wastewater-treatment systems. Upgrading facultative ponds and waste-stabilization pond effluents. Agricultural reuse of treated wastewater from waste-stabilization and maturation ponds. Algal ponds in sewage treatment. Case study: A pond system for treating palm-oil mill effluent. Ethical issues anad disclaimer about freshwater-fish polyculture. Combining wastewater recycling and food production in an integrated aquaculture-wetland ecosystem. Case study: Manure-fed and wastewater-fed fish aquaculture in small-town municipal sewage treatment. Case study: Fish-aquaculture-based system for the purification of primary-treated municipal sewage. Case study: Waste-stabilization ponds for wastewater treatment, fish production, and multiple-crop irrigation. Case study: Low-cost sanitation and waste recycling using sewage-fed fish-aquaculture pond systems. Chapter 5. Aquatic plants, macrophytes, halophytes, hydroponic vegetables, trees, and agroforestry in ecological wastewater-treatment systems. Mechanisms of macrophyte-based wastewater-treatment systems. The role of macrophyte roots. Macrophytes and trees in wastewater-treatment plants. The removal of bacteria, viruses, and pathogenic organisms in macrophyte-based wastewater treatment. Aquatic plants in tertiary or advanced wastewater treatment. Biological purification of drinking water using miniature macrophyte-based, constructed ecosystems. Vegetated shoals, bioditches, bioponds, moor filters, peat biofilters, and planted buffer strips in wastewater treatment and pollution prevention. Using macrophytes in hydroponic tertiary treatment and polishing of secondary effluent. Hydroponic crop production to recycle wastes in space stations' closed systems and ecosystems. Evaluating commercial-crop growth potential of a hydroponic sewage-treatment system. Aquatic-macrophyte ponds in the purification of hospital sewage. Macrophytes in septic-tank wastewater treatment. Combined macrophyte-polyculture wastewater-purification and nutrient-recycling system for zoos. Macrophytes and microphytes in a pond-wetland system for rural sewage treatment. Combined algae-water hyacinths in nitrogen removal in industrial wastewater. Salt-tolerant plants, or halophytes, in the treatment of saline wastewater and mitigation of pollution in estuaries and coastal waters. Wastewater purification with water-peanut ponds. Cast study: Macrophyte wastewater-purification ponds combined with nutrient recycling and food production. Mechanical harvesting of macrophytes. Macrophyte species in ecological sewage treatment. Restoration of a reservoir-watershed with agroforestry (and eco-orchards) and ecological engineering. Chapter 6. Constructed wetlands and reed-bed systems in ecological wastewater treatment. The importance of wetlands in protecting natural water quality and watershed health. Three basic types of constructed wetlands. Reed-bed systems for natural sludge dewatering, composting, and storage. Case study: Domestic wastewater treatment using constructed wetlands in India, New Zealand, and the Czech Republic. Case study: An integrated constructed wetland with tea trees (Melaleuca) in Australia. Cast study: Constructed wetlands for nitrate removal in the drinking-water supply of southern California. Case study: Constructed wetlands for river reclamation in Israel. Local and migratory birds in restored wetlands. Chapter 7. Ecological design of greywater recycling and treatment systems. Phytoremediation in the treatment of greywater and chemically contaminated water: Phytoaccumulation, phytoextraction, phytostabilization, phytovolatilization, phytopumping, phytodegradation/phytotransformation, rhizofiltration, and rhizodegradation. Small domestic water-reuse systems for communities. Flowform aeration and natural oxygenation in riverbed flows in wastewater treatment and water purification. Cast studies: (1) A triplicate soil-layer infiltration-wetland-pond system for greywater and rainwater purification in Sweden; (2) Water reclamation with irrigated woodlots and horticulture in Australia; (3) Reed beds for greywater treatment in Costa Rica; (4) Pilot-scale natural treatment system in Mexico. Chapter 8. Living Machines and Solar Aquatics: Examples of integrated, ecological wastewater-treatment systems. What is a Living Machine? The Living Machines in Sonoma Mountain Brewery and the Mars/Ethel M Chocolates Factory in Henderson, NV. An evaluation of a Living Machines Pilot Tertiary Treatment System in San Francisco. Stensund Wastewater Aquaculture in Sweden. The Solar Aquatics in Harwich, Massachusetts. Ethical issues on using fish and other aquatic animals in wastewater treatment. Chapter 9. Low-cost filters and sorbents for water and wastewater treatment. Low-cost sorbents. Fungal biodegradation of wastes in filters. Compact sand filters. Wastewater filtering with ring-shaped floating plastic net media. Fungal biosorbent. Plant-based biomass biosorbent. Sand filters with granitic and volcanic alluvial soils in "Soakaway Pits" for piggery wastewater. Compact sand-and-textile-flock filters for wastewater treatment in households and small communities. Case Study: Permeable pavement filters for water-storage reservoirs. Anthracite ash as low-cost media in fixed-film biological filters. Aerated membranes and biofilters in pilot systems. Microbial biodegradation of chlorophenols and chlorinated hydrocarbons using sand and diatomaceous earth in fluidized-bed bioreactors. Chapter 10. Ecological wastewater-treatment systems for animal manure and high-strength agricultural wastes. Water pollution by industry-scale factory farms. Anaerobic digestion of manure and organic matter. Miniaturizing natural ecosystems in treatment systems. Case studies: (1) A prototype system for the treatment of piggery wastewater; (2) High-rate pond system for piggery wastewater treatment; (3) Combined lagoon-wetland system for piggery wastewater treatment; (4) Constructed wetlands for the treatment of dairy flush water and piggery wastewater; (5) Nutrient recycling of liquid piggery waste with sand filters, macrophytes, and fish aquaculture; (6) In-situ composting of piggery waste with sawdust. Ecological design process: A sample design for a factory dairy farm's manure- and wastewater-treatment system.