• Question: What will improving the way we treat drinking water affect in the future?

    Asked by anon-207865 to Natalie, Scott, Oliver, Michelle, Lowri on 5 Mar 2019. This question was also asked by anon-207617.
    • Photo: Natalie Lamb

      Natalie Lamb answered on 5 Mar 2019:

      In the future, climate change means there will be less drinking water for us to drink and what is still there will likely be more dirty and need more treatment. I’m trying to look into the best ways of treating water that removes the most organisms and uses fewer chemicals because some of the chemicals we use today have problems.

      For example, chlorine is used in swimming pools because it kills any germs on your body when you get in the pool (or if you go to the toilet in the pool!). That same chlorine but in very very low amounts is used in tap water to kill germs in drinking water too. But chlorine is only made in one place in the UK so it has to get transported by big tankers. When it travels like this, a very big amount of chlorine in one place, if there is a car accident, the tanker could explode. I’m looking into safer ways of getting rid of germs from drinking water, like UV light bulbs.

    • Photo: Scott Graham

      Scott Graham answered on 15 Mar 2019:

      As clean safe water is vital for life, I would say testing water and making sure it is free from harmful bacteria would benefit our future for our health. Not only do I make sure water is safe to drink from taps or swim in at swimming pools. I also test at various points of wastewater treatment plants and give feedback to how safe it is. this is useful as once processed treated water is put back into the environment by rivers oceans lakes, making sure this is safe will benefit our environment and marine ecosystem which in return will be beneficial to our future in the long run

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