scholarly journals Evolution of regulatory targets for drinking water quality

2014 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 413-426 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martha Sinclair ◽  
Joanne O'Toole ◽  
Katherine Gibney ◽  
Karin Leder
Keyword(s):  
Water Quality ◽  
Drinking Water ◽  
Drinking Water Quality ◽  
Water Safety ◽  
Drinking Water Safety ◽  
Quality Regulation ◽  
Target Values ◽  
Disease Risks ◽  
Current Context ◽  
Knowledge And Practice

The last century has been marked by major advances in the understanding of microbial disease risks from water supplies and significant changes in expectations of drinking water safety. The focus of drinking water quality regulation has moved progressively from simple prevention of detectable waterborne outbreaks towards adoption of health-based targets that aim to reduce infection and disease to a level well below detection limits at the community level. This review outlines the changes in understanding of community disease and waterborne risks that prompted development of these targets, and also describes their underlying assumptions and current context. Issues regarding the appropriateness of selected target values, and how continuing changes in knowledge and practice may influence their evolution, are also discussed.

scholarly journals Implementation and evaluation of the water safety plan approach for buildings

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (6) ◽  
pp. 870-883 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabelle Schmidt ◽  
Bettina Rickert ◽  
Oliver Schmoll ◽  
Thomas Rapp
Keyword(s):  
Water Quality ◽  
Drinking Water ◽  
Drinking Water Quality ◽  
World Health ◽  
Management Approach ◽  
Successful Implementation ◽  
Water Safety ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Drinking Water Safety ◽  
Premise Plumbing

Abstract The World Health Organization (WHO) promotes water safety plans (WSPs) – a risk-based management approach – for premise plumbing systems in buildings to prevent deterioration of drinking-water quality. Experience with the implementation of WSPs in buildings were gathered within a pilot project in Germany. The project included an evaluation of the feasibility and advantages of WSPs by all stakeholders who share responsibility in drinking-water safety. While the feasibility of the concept was demonstrated for all buildings, benefits reported by building operators varied. The more technical standards were complied with before implementing WSP, the less pronounced were the resulting improvements. In most cases, WSPs yielded an increased system knowledge and awareness for drinking-water quality issues. WSPs also led to improved operation of the premise plumbing system and provided benefits for surveillance authorities. A survey among the European Network of Drinking-Water Regulators on the existing legal framework regarding drinking-water safety in buildings exhibited that countries are aware of the need to manage risks in buildings' installations, but experience with WSP is rare. Based on the successful implementation and the positive effects of WSPs on drinking-water quality, we recommend the establishment of legal frameworks that require WSPs for priority buildings whilst accounting for differing conditions in buildings and countries.

Analysis of Problems of Unsafe Drinking Water in Rural Areas in China

2011 ◽  
Vol 94-96 ◽  
pp. 706-709
Author(s):  
Zhen Hua Liu
Keyword(s):  
Waste Water ◽  
Water Quality ◽  
Drinking Water ◽  
Solid Waste ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Drinking Water Quality ◽  
Polluted Water ◽  
Water Safety ◽  
Industrial Solid Waste ◽  
Drinking Water Safety

In the process of solving rural drinking water safety,there are some problems need to attach great importance. Evaluation index system of rural drinking water safety includes water quality, quantity, convenience, and dependability. Figure 1 shows that Polluted water is the main reason of unsafe drinking water quality, 40.9% of unsafe drinking water quality, 28.8% of unsafe drinking water. Figure 2 shows that basically the discharge of waste water each year from 1998 to 2009 is increasing, the total discharge of waste water across China from 1997 to 2009 reached to 621.945 billion t. Table 2 shows that national industrial solid waste generation and utilization is increasing,but discharge decreasing, industrial solid waste, directly or indirectly polluted water environment, especially rural drinking water sources. The paper draws a conclusion that there are some problems of rural drinking water such as rural unsafe drinking water quality, lack of laws and regulations and effective management, serious rural water pollution.

Off-flavor as the consumer's measure of drinking water safety

1995 ◽  
Vol 31 (11) ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J. McGuire
Keyword(s):  
Water Quality ◽  
Drinking Water ◽  
Water Utilities ◽  
Regulatory Environment ◽  
Safe Drinking Water ◽  
Water Safety ◽  
Safe Water ◽  
Drinking Water Safety ◽  
Off Flavors ◽  
Health Related

If consumers detect an off-flavor in their drinking water, they are likely to believe that it probably is not safe. Water utilities will be defeating their best efforts to provide safe drinking water if they only meet health-related regulations and do not provide water that is free of off-flavor problems. The purpose of this paper is to explore the current U.S. regulatory environment and discuss how these regulations can adversely impact the control of off-flavors in drinking water. Utilities should adopt a water quality goal that allows them to not only meet the minimums of the regulations, but also meet the customer's highest standards - water that is free of off-flavors.

Evaluation of Water Quality of Rural Drinking Water and Countermeasure Research in Luquan City

2013 ◽  
Vol 773 ◽  
pp. 815-818
Author(s):  
Fang Hong Li ◽  
Xu Li Liang
Keyword(s):  
Water Quality ◽  
Drinking Water ◽  
Site Investigation ◽  
Water Type ◽  
Water Safety ◽  
Index Method ◽  
Countermeasure Research ◽  
Investigation Area ◽  
Drinking Water Safety ◽  
Comprehensive Index Method

The rural drinking water safety is an important issue for people's livelihood. For Luquan city, of Hebei province in China, drinking water was sampled through site investigation, and the water quality was analyzed used comprehensive index method. The results show that: the water type is IV in the investigation area, which is not suitable for drinking in a long time. The corresponding measures were proposed combined with the real conditions, which could provide theoretical guidance and policy reference for improvement of rural drinking water management mechanism.

scholarly journals Application of a risk management system to improve drinking water safety

2008 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 547-557 ◽  
Author(s):  
Asoka Jayaratne
Keyword(s):  
Water Quality ◽  
Risk Management ◽  
Drinking Water ◽  
Effective Means ◽  
Control Point ◽  
Drinking Water Quality ◽  
Iso 9001 ◽  
World Health ◽  
Water Safety ◽  
Critical Control Point

The use of a comprehensive risk management framework is considered a very effective means of managing water quality risks. There are many risk-based systems available to water utilities such as ISO 9001 and Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP). In 2004, the World Health Organization's (WHO) Guidelines for Drinking Water Quality recommended the use of preventive risk management approaches to manage water quality risks. This paper describes the framework adopted by Yarra Valley Water for the development of its Drinking Water Quality Risk Management Plan incorporating HACCP and ISO 9001 systems and demonstrates benefits of Water Safety Plans such as HACCP.

scholarly journals A Study of Public Safety Engineering Projects for the Improvement of Drinking Water Quality in Northwestern China — an Example from Shanshan County, Xinjiang

10.29007/ngkj ◽  
2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Weiwei Shao ◽  
Jiahong Liu ◽  
Denghua Yan ◽  
Haixing Zhang ◽  
Zhaohui Yang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Quality ◽  
Drinking Water ◽  
Project Management ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Drinking Water Quality ◽  
Northwestern China ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Clean Water ◽  
Water Safety ◽  
Water Projects

Using Shanshan County as the research focus, this study investigates drinking water safety in northwestern China and proposes measures for improving the efficiency of clean water projects targeting drinking water quality in the region. As new technologies such as the Internet and the Internet of things gain wider usage, urban and rural safe drinking water projects should focus on equipping projects, modularizing the equipment, improving project management using internetization, and developing intellectualization for increased Internet dependence. This study proposes modularization of the equipment for clean water projects for centralized and decentralized water supply programs. For management of such projects, this research proposes internetization in project management as well as intellectualization of construction, including establishment of management facilities, automation of water plant operations, intelligent control of clean water operations, and online intelligent water monitoring. This study integrates various information resources and investigates the implementation of intellectualized management of water treatment facilities through scientific advances and evaluates the potential of these approaches for increasing the quality of public service.

scholarly journals Screening of organic micropollutants in raw and drinking water in the Yangtze River Delta, China

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hanwei Ren ◽  
Rikard Tröger ◽  
Lutz Ahrens ◽  
Karin Wiberg ◽  
Daqiang Yin
Keyword(s):  
Water Quality ◽  
Drinking Water ◽  
Flame Retardants ◽  
Total Concentration ◽  
Advanced Treatment ◽  
Source Water ◽  
Organic Micropollutants ◽  
Water Safety ◽  
Treatment Techniques ◽  
Drinking Water Safety

Abstract Background The vast occurrence of organic micropollutants in surface waters has raised concerns about drinking water safety and public health. The Tai Hu Basin region in China, a typical developing and populous area, is facing the challenge of water pollution. To ensure drinking water safety, the knowledge on how treatment techniques and raw water quality affect the quality of finished water must be improved. The aim of the current study was to evaluate drinking water quality in relation to source water origin and treatment strategies. Five drinking water treatment plants (DWTPs), using three different source waters in the Tai Hu River Basin, (i) Yangtze River, (ii) Wetland River Network, and (iii) Lake Tai Hu, were studied by analyzing 291 micropollutants in raw and finished water.Results Major differences in water characteristics were observed among the source waters. The dominating group of micropollutants in the River Network was pesticides, while Yangtze was mainly polluted by flame retardants. The total concentration of poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) in Tai Hu water was far higher than in others. In total, 51 compounds were detected in finished water, with an overall average total concentration of 730 ± 160 ng L -1 . The removal efficiency of the detected compounds in the DWTPs averaged 24 ± 149%, which highlights the major challenge for the DWTPs to remove emerging organic micropollutants through current treatment processes.Conclusions Our study showed that if the source water contains high levels of PFASs and organophosphorus flame retardants, even advanced treatment procedures are inefficient in removing the micropollutants, and the finished water may contain cumulative levels in the mg L -1 range. On the other hand, if pesticides and pharmaceuticals dominate, high overall treatment efficiencies may be obtained if using advanced treatment techniques. DWTPs are advised to use advanced treatment techniques or alternative water sources to guarantee the safety of drinking water. As surface water systems are highly impacted by upstream activities, efforts should also be made in the comprehensive water sector for improved surface water quality.

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