Making Safe Water Commonplace: Solutions through Science and Technology

Abstract

Among the hierarchy of environmental and social challenges being faced today, provision of clean and safe drinking water to our population remains a long standing challenge, especially in the developing countries. The water problem is further complicated by the emerging challenges of reduced availability, new contaminants and the ill effects of ‘development’. Amongst the backdrop of these challenges, the presentation will focus on bringing together our understanding of materials and process science to build solutions for microbiological purification and sustainable desalination; while also reviewing available solutions and taking inspiration from a variety of researches, to develop promising solutions. At the end, the speaker hopes to discuss insights from innovation, the challenge in adoption and why it is critically important that we continue to invest our science to help solve these challenges for our people.