DRINKING WATER QUALITY & WASTEWATER MANAGEMENT

Wastewater Treatment Plant Manager, Water Treatment Plant Manager, Water Engineer, Process Scientist, Environmental Scientist, Environmental Protection Officer, Analytical Chemist, Microbiologist, Biologist, Drinking Water Inspector, Water Quality Scientist

The Sector
Safe treatment and distribution of drinking water to the customer’s tap and the collection, treatment and safe disposal of wastewater continue to make a vital contribution to public health throughout the world.

In most developing countries the water and sanitation situation is very different, with an estimated 2.4 billion people without access to adequate sanitation. Recent reports from Tearfund and WaterAid, two leading British development agencies, indicates that 20 million children will die in the developing world within the next 10 years unless urgent action is taken to address preventable diseases caused by inadequate sanitation.

Issues and Trends
Much of the recent UK environmental legislation, including drinking water and wastewater management, has been driven by European directives which embrace sustainability, precautionary and “polluter pays” principles. Detailed directives are in places covering drinking water and urban wastewater management with considerable investment carried out by the water industry since 1989.

The huge challenge of delivering clean drinking water and sanitation to the world’s expanding urban and rural populations is increasingly focussing on new forms of private-public partnerships to improve management and operations, ways of involving NGOs to target those most in need and ways to improve water demand management, including better leakage control. Opportunities to work overseas in developing countries with voluntary organisations, consultancies and aid organisations will continue to grow for practitioners with experience in both private and public sectors.