Access to clean drinking water and sanitation is acknowledged by the United Nations as a human right. Water-borne diseases are still prevalent around the world causing harm from inadequate public sanitation systems or improper wastewater treatment. Improving sanitation is known to have a significant beneficial impact on health, in both households and across communities.
Treatment processes are embedded in the journey water takes from the environment to the consumer and back to the environment again. They involve the removal or reduction of existing contaminants to ensure the water is fit for use and also include the collection of all used water, ‘wastewater’ which is then treated so that it may be safely returned to the environment. Some wastewater systems also carry surface water back to rivers or to treatment plants.
Our work in this area covers all aspects of the treatment of water for drinking and other uses, and the sustainable management and treatment of wastewater and its by-products.