Public Debate and raising awareness on DBPs

The Public Debate "Guidance on measures, policy and public engagement: Everything you wanted to know about DBPs" invites citizens to learn and discuss about challenges to drinking water quality. It is a partner event of the EU Green Week​ and organised by three drinking water projects of the ZeroPollution4Water Cluster: H2OforAll​, intoDBP​ and SafeCREW​.

After a short introduction of the three projects we will open the floor on a public debate "Is it the end of the chlorination age? Or is it the end of chlorination as we know it?" which will be followed by a panel discussion on practical steps for protecting our drinking water (from DBPs). Please have a look into our preliminary agenda​.

Disinfection by-products (DBPs) are important environmental contaminants that have documented human health issues from many epidemiologic studies. People are exposed to DBPs by drinking chlorinated or brominated water and by breathing in air containing DBPs. The skin also absorbs DBPs during bathing and swimming. After exposure, DBPs remain in the body for only a short period of time. Citizen may look up water quality data to understand better how water quality affects their health. The main objective of this event is to have an open session to the consumers to inform and increase citizens' awareness about sources of water pollution within and outside a household (from source to supply).

Discuss recommendations on how household activities can be adapted to decrease water pollution and therefore reduce the need for heavy treatment steps afterwards that will lead to DBPs formation.

The four ZeroPollution4Water Cluster projects aim at securing drinking water quality by protecting water sources against pollution, providing innovative monitoring treatment solutions, and ensuring safe distribution. Particularly, one of the objectives of H2OforAll project is to engage public on the water quality issues and create awareness on how our behaviours affect the entire water chain. The final goal is the development of a user tool to study citizen engagement and measuring water quality awareness. A list of recommendations on preventive measures to protect water quality is one of the expected outcomes. This online event, open to the general public, will be the seed for a presential workshop on disinfection by-products, public engagement and awareness that will be held in Porto (Portugal) in November 2024.