The University of Cincinnati environmental engineering professor has been preoccupied with water for most of his life. Today, his Mediterranean hometown has modern plumbing, but water remains a precious and finite resource, especially in drought years.
“I was always fascinated by water,” he said. “I grew up in a place where water stress was an issue. And it’s still an issue.”
Dionysiou, a professor in UC’s College of Engineering and Applied Science, has dedicated his career to studying water conservation, pollution and treatment. He is a UNESCO co-chairman professor on Water Access and Sustainability and a fellow of the European Academy of Sciences and the International Water Association, a public policy organization.
Can you tell me about the Science article?
We developed an idea to write an editorial about pollution prevention because we thought that there was too much emphasis on water treatment and not enough on preventing contamination in the sources of drinking water. You can treat more and more but there are still micropollutants in the water. In principle, if you create this pollution, there will always be problems down the road. Look at all the microplastics. Now we find that there are microplastics in all the aquatic environments. And now they’re banning straws and plastic bags.