KTL deals with all waterborne epidemics nationwide. Since 1997, 30 epidemics comprising 20,000 diarrhoea patients were disclosed. Calicivirus and campylobacteria were the microbes responsible for most outbreaks. In ten cases, the same microbe was identified from both the patients and their drinking water.
A biofilm is always formed on the inner surfaces of drinking water pipelines. It is composed of inorganic and organic matter and microbes. We study the impact of the properties of water on the formation of biofilms and the fate of pathogenic microbes on them. This research involves experiments in both laboratory and municipal water system scale.
Disinfecting involves chlorine and ozone, which are capable of breaking and oxidising organic molecules in water and living organisms. We study by-products formed in these processes in the absence and presence of bromide. Our aim is to develop effective and safe drinking water treatments for the municipal waterworks.