ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive

Okay kiddo, so imagine you live in a big city, and every time you flush the toilet or wash your hands or take a shower, all of that dirty water goes down the drain and disappears. But where does it go? Well, it goes to a place called a wastewater treatment plant, where nice people work to make that dirty water clean again!

Now, sometimes in big cities, there are a lot of people and a lot of dirty water, and that can be a problem. It can make the rivers and oceans all gross and smelly, and that's not good for animals or people who like to swim. That's where the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive comes in.

The Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive is a rule made by some very smart grown-ups who work for the government to make sure that all of that dirty water is cleaned up really well before it goes back into the environment. It's like a set of directions that the people who run the wastewater treatment plant have to follow to make sure they're doing a good job.

The directive says that the wastewater treatment plant has to get rid of things like pee and poops and other yucky things from the water. They do this by using special machines and filters and chemicals to clean up the water until it's safe to go back into the rivers and oceans. That way, the water is nice and clean again, and the animals and people who live near the water are happy!

So even though you might not think about it when you use the toilet or take a bath, there are lots of grown-ups working hard to make sure that our dirty water doesn't make the world a dirty place. That's why we have the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive!