Water Engineering and Sustainability

This resource pack can be used to highlight issues such as global water scarcity, the challenges people face when sourcing water and maintaining a water supply in developing countries and the role of the engineers in solving these problems.

Following a quick quiz, a presentation introduces the scale of local and global water consumption, water mains infrastructure, decontamination, health risks, water sources and alternative treatment technologies. Students are then provided with the components that form the water mains infrastructure and a landscape showing the water cycle and are asked to work in groups to design their own mains infrastructure from source to waste treatment.

The main activity is a water filter workshop that demonstrates the basic principles of water filtration and explains the work of civil engineers in the context of design, problem solving, team working and multidisciplinary management. Background information and ideas for further discussion are included, together with student worksheets and instructions. These resources were produced by Water for the World, a collaboration between Engineers Without Borders UK and Arup, a global firm of consultant engineers, in order to stimulate thought on global water sustainability.