Everyone of us consumes 140 Liters of water each day, but only a fraction of it is used for cooking and drinking. Moreover, the water systems we rely upon are based on technology that is far too old and not future-proof. Professor Jörg Drewes works on alternative models for the water systems of the future. He encourages us to use the term 'used water' instead of 'wastewater', and makes the case for its sustainable treatment to ensure proper water supply for an ever growing urban population.

About Jörg Drewes

Jörg Drewes researches in the fields of energy-efficient water treatment systems and water recycling. He investigates questions like these: How do we determine whether our current water and wastewater treatment systems are working efficiently? How can we engineer reliable systems for water and wastewater treatment? What are novel energy-efficient design approaches for the treatment of water in cities of the future? Prof. Drewes has conducted research in this field in Munich, Berlin, USA (Colorado, Arizona, California, Texas), Australia, and Saudi Arabia. He served on multiple science advisory panels and chaired blue ribbon panels on topics related to public health, engineering, and reliability of water reuse projects, and won multiple awards. In 2008 and 2013, he was appointed to the U.S. National Academies/National Research Council Committees on Water Reuse as an Approach for Meeting Future Water Supply Needs and Onsite Reuse of Graywater and Stormwater, respectively.