Mission Statement

The mission of the Center is to coordinate research activities at UNC-CH pertaining to all aspects of drinking water, to explore new drinking water research initiatives, to provide technical assistance to potential users of this research, and to foster and facilitate collaboration with other engineers, scientists, and policymakers in other institutions and agencies in the US and abroad to address critical drinking water issues. 

The focus of research at the Drinking Water Research Center is on: the chemical, physical, and microbiological quality of drinking water; water purification technology; health effects associated with the consumption of drinking water; and economic and planning aspects related to the supply of safe drinking water.  Ongoing research activities within the DWRC include health effects of disinfection by-products, evaluation of disinfection performance, modeling distribution system networks, appropriate technologies for developing countries, and planning, decision-making, and risk assessment modeling.

The Drinking Water Research Center is a part of the School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  The Center's goals are developed by its director who is guided by the steering committee.