Water Supply Engineering

The sustainable provision of safe and reliable drinking water remains as the major challenges facing both the developing and industrialized regions in the world. The issues of water supply are dealt with in depth in the Water Supply Engineering Chair Group.

In rural and peri-urban areas in developing countries there is a continued need for the development and application of low-cost appropriate treatment and distribution technologies. In the industrialized regions the fast growth of the urbanized populations and the increasing constraints on the development and use of water resources have spurred measures to conserve and reuse water. These include demand management, reduction of water losses use of surface water, groundwater recharge, municipal reuse in dual water supply systems, industrial reuse and wastewater reuse for irrigation.

Activities

The Water Supply Engineering Chair Group is involved in the generation and transfer of knowledge related to both appropriate low-cost technologies and advanced drinking water and industrial water treatment and distribution. The group addresses a wide range of issues, such as the further development and wider use of membrane technology, ground and surface water treatment, low-cost treatment of surface water, reuse of industrial wastewater, water transport and distribution, etc. The group is responsible for the water supply modules in the MSc programme in Municipal Water and Infrastructure, and offers short courses in water transport and distribution, and in membrane technology. The also group supports several IHE Delft capacity building projects.