Healthy London Water

One of the major challenges in protecting the health of people in a city is to be able to provide water that is fit to drink. With an increasing populations we are faced with difficult questions:

Would people be happy to drink water that has been recovered from sewage directly?

Do we know or care what effect our waste has on the sewers and water treatment plants? What causes ‘fatbergs’?

Can we help to prevent blockages in the sewers?

These 5 lessons relate to the pure and impure substances section of the science (chemistry) national curriculum. Students will consider what we mean by pure substances and how polluted water can be cleaned and stored. They will consider contemporary technological developments that are aiming to resolve issues related to the Victorian system that is still largely in use, as well as celebrating the history of technology that has supported the population of London over the centuries. Students can explore the London locality and become involved in citizen science projects measuring the quality of local water in ponds and lakes. They may also visit water works, both those that are still working and those that relate to the history of water and the processing of waste in London.

Curriculum links include:

• the concept of a pure substance
• mixtures, including dissolving
• simple techniques for separating mixtures: filtration, evaporation,
• distillation and chromatography
• the identification of pure substances
• the pH scale for measuring acidity/alkalinity; and indicators