Water Treatment in London

London sewage treatment was developed to protect Londoners from water borne disease. Now the Thames Tideway tunnel is being built to help the sewage system cope with the rising London population. This lesson will allow students to conduct experimental work to model water treatment and have a chance to consider the importance of water analysis. An understanding of separation techniques in a real context will be developed. The role of environmental health and water borne disease will also be considered.

Students could describe the use of separating techniques, filtration and distillation in the context of water purification. They should devise a simple method to filter dirty water and evaluate the result in terms of how good a model they have produced to producing drinking water.

Students must describe how filtration works to remove solid waste and why this cannot work for dissolved particles. Must describe the role scientists can take in maintaining water quality.

This resource is part of a full set of lessons looking at pure substances and how polluted water can be cleaned and stored found here