Water treatment plants have evolved their technology over the years to tackle health threats due to water contamination eg cholera, typhoid, and dysentery. Treatment plants began to implement chlorination. Chlorination virtually wiped out both the spread and initial contamination of these diseases, and did so in a way that earned it the title of "probably the most significant public health advance of the millennium" from Life Magazine.
Electrochlorination is the next step in the evolution of this process. It chlorinates drinking water without producing environmental toxins. Unlike other chlorination techniques, electrochlorination generates no sludge or by-products other than hydrogen which must be managed safely. It is safer for the operators of the chlorinators as there is no handling of chlorine gas, which is highly toxic and corrosive. A risk assessment is required as the hydrogen released is flammable and explosive.