This study analysed the impact of extreme weather events, water quality deterioration, and a growing drinking water demand on the sustainability of drinking water supply in the Netherlands. The results of the case studies were compared to sustainability issues for drinking water supply that are experienced worldwide. This resulted in a set of sustainability characteristics describing drinking water supply on a local scale in terms of hydrological, technical, and socio-economic characteristics.

Thin film composite forward osmosis membranes were prepared on a polysulfone substrate (17 wt %) as a support layer, via an interfacial polymerization reaction, to form a polyamide selective layer. The effect of the reaction times was investigated. The best results were found to be at 5 min for m-phenylenediamine and 1 min for trimesoyl chloride reaction times, respectively. These results gave the best performance of forward osmosis membranes in terms of water flux and salt rejection.

Our work investigates the settling behaviour of natural granules applied in drinking water treatment plants. We show that these natural granules have a tendency to show a considerably large deviation in terms of their settling velocity; this is contrary to what many velocity prediction models assume. In the current work, we present and discuss the factors which contribute to the observed deviation in drag and settling velocity. It connects full-scale operations and research.

We investigated the effect of long exposure to sunlight (as practised by retailers and peddlers in Bauchi State, Nigeria) of commercial plastic-bottled drinking water. The levels of physical/chemical parameters were measured for five brands, and it was found that levels of pH, antimony, nitrates, and bisphenol A changed significantly as exposure time increased, thus highlighting the importance of proper monitoring of storage and retailing of plastic bottle products to safeguard consumer health.

Providing drinkable potable water from saline or heavily polluted water using renewable energy is further explored. Solar desalination is an eco-friendly, accessible and affordable technology. We show that there is a direct relationship between and huge dependency on solar still daily distillate yield in the solar radiation intensity and the temperature difference between the condensing inner glass cover and the water. Hence, we hope to have drinkable water for all using solar power technology.

This study aimed to prepare a cellulose paper impregnated with silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) for the purpose of water purification (disinfection (removal of several types of bacteria) and filtration). Sliver nanoparticles used in this work exhibited a broad size distribution with highly reactive facets. AgNP paper provided rapid and effective bactericidal activity.