Perspectives on drinking water monitoring for small scale water systems

Drinking water (DW) is increasingly subject to environmental and human threats that alter the quality of the resource and potentially of the distributed water. These threats can be both biological and chemical in nature, and are often cumulated. The increase of technical frame of water quality monitoring following the evolution of water quality standards guarantee the regulation compliance in general but is not sufficient for the survey of small scale water system efficiency. The existing monitoring is not well suited to insure a good quality of distributed water, especially in the event of a sudden modification of quality. This article aims to propose alternative solutions, from the examination of monitoring practices, in a bid to limit the risk of deterioration of DW quality.