Although urbanization offers enormous opportunities for socio-economic growth in many low-income countries, the process also presents major challenges for sustainable development.

The department contributes to the provision of safe drinking water and sanitation facilities to the world’s urban populations through conducting research, providing post-graduate education and training, and supporting knowledge institutions in developing countries. The department integrates the main disciplines water supply engineering and sanitary engineering within the urban water cycle concept in its education and research activities. Water supply engineering focuses on all aspects of water from source to tap, including water quality, treatment and distribution, for the provision of safe and reliable water. The core is involved in the generation and transfer of knowledge related to both appropriate, low-cost and advanced technologies for drinking and industrial water treatment, as well as water transport and distribution. Sanitary engineering concerns urban drainage, wastewater collection, wastewater treatment and reclamation/reuse, and residuals/sludge management systems and facilities. The core’s operations are positioned within an urban context and range from centralized to decentralized approaches, advanced versus low-cost technologies, and engineered versus natural systems.

Click here for an overview of the UWS staff

For more information about the core groups, research and online courses check the following links.