TECHNEAU Technology Enabled Universal Access to Safe Water

Summary

TECHNEAU is a large international EU funded project tasked with securing and improving the water supply both in the EU and developing countries. The University of Surrey team is responsible for the social science and policy aspects of this programme and is particularly concerned with consumer trust in the water supply and how users react to technological and regulatory innovations. Our work will be integrated with field trials of new supply systems in four countries.

Objectives

TECHNEAU's goal is to develop adaptive supply system options and new and improved treatment and monitoring technologies.

Future system options to be studied include flexible, small scale and multi-source supplies, utilising non conventional resources like brackish ground water, treated wastewater and urban groundwater. Treatment technologies include membrane and oxidation based multi-barrier schemes, providing safety against a broad spectrum of chemical and microbiological contaminants. Monitoring technologies will be developed to provide online and on-site information on water quality including risk of malicious contamination. The project will integrate and advance current work on modelling with the purpose of controlling and optimising supply systems. A framework for risk assessment/risk management will assist in integrating the project output into the practice of the water companies

Impacts

The project will enable end-users to make informed choices, appropriate to their own circumstances and constraints, for cost-effective and sustainable source-to-tap solutions for the provision of safe high quality drinking water that has the trust of the consumer. This step-change will be achieved by a critical mass of researchers, technology developers and users from across Europe and developing countries.

Publications

Fife-Schaw CR, Barnett J, Morrison G, Åström J, Hartung J (2009) Enhancing consumer relations: The role of trust and confidence. In van den Hoven T, Kazner C (Eds.). TECHNEAU: Safe Drinking Water from Source to Tap: State of the Art and Perspectives. IWA Publishing, London.

Chenoweth J, Barnett J, Capelos T, Fife-Schaw CR, Kelay, T (2010) Comparison of consumer attitudes between Cyprus and Latvia: an evaluation of effect of setting on consumer preferences in the water industry. Water Resources Management 24, 4339–4358.

Researchers 

Funding