02Providing clean water for all
UKWIR will enable research to ensure that the quality and quantity of water required to protect customers’ health is maintained, across a whole range of possible scenarios.
Drinking water is key to public health and wellbeing. It is a basic human right for everyone to have access to clean drinking water, when and where they need it. The UK and Ireland currently enjoys some of the best quality drinking water in the world, which is delivered to customers through an extensive infrastructure, but the sector is experiencing unprecedented challenges. These include ageing infrastructure and the increasing need to become more adaptable to climate change and population growth. The water sector currently uses significant amounts of energy and chemicals to treat water and wastewater, and we need to research more sustainable methods of achieving clean water.
UKWIR plans to support research to increase knowledge and improve practices so that by 2050 the water sector will have:
- Customers that are satisfied with drinking water taste and odour
- Customers that have confidence and trust in the water sector services
- Catchment solutions that are used to treat water early in the process
- Sustainable water treatment solutions that are more resilient to climate change
- Infrastructure that is resilient to more extreme demand scenarios, responding to a growing population and the stresses of climate change
- The ability to confidently predict asset failure and supply interruptions, and deliver short-term mitigation measures
How UKWIR themes relate to UN Sustainable Development Goals
Examples of our research publications
Impact of dynamic system changes on customer acceptability
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PFAS and wastewater - prevalence, reduction options and costs.
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Understanding the chemistry and control of lead
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For each of our themes we have developed a mission and aims, which we have aligned to the UKWIR Big Questions and linked to the UN Sustainable Development Goals to reflect their global applicability.
Helping to address the big questions
BQ3 - How do we achieve zero interruptions to water supplies by 2050?
BQ4 - How do we achieve 100% compliance with drinking water standards (at point of use) by 2050?