To make water safe for consumption, contaminants must be removed. This process is known as water purification. Reverse osmosis, distillation, and ultraviolet (UV) radiation are a few techniques for cleaning water.

Boiling water produces steam that is later condensed back into liquid during the distillation process. With the help of this procedure, water that is unsafe for drinking is cleaned of minerals, bacteria, and other pollutants. However, distillation can be costly and time-consuming, and it might not be as good at getting rid of some impurities as other techniques.

A semipermeable membrane is used in the reverse osmosis (RO) technique to extract dissolved particles from water. RO systems are very good at purifying water of contaminants such as heavy metals, minerals, and other impurities. The RO systems for residential and commercial use are modular or skid mounted and are easy to install. The RO systems are designed to suit the raw water parameters, and may include multiple pre-filtration steps to protect the RO membrane from fouling.

Another technique for sanitising  water is UV disinfection, which entails exposing the water to ultraviolet light. Bacteria and other potentially harmful microbes are inactivated during this process. It is important to have various filtration steps  before UV disinfection, in order to improve the UV transmission into the aqueous media. Unlike chemical  disinfection like for instance using chlorine, UV disinfection does not provide any residual or long lasting protection.