Question: Why do you think we should change how we treat our water/create a new water system?

Natalie Lamb answered on 5 Mar 2019:

I think we should change how we treat our water to make it safer and to make sure it will still work in the future.

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.