Drinking water quality assessment practices: an international perspective

The complexity of compliance monitoring was acknowledged by The Standards and Monitoring Committee of IWA who initiated a task force to investigate international practices. Results from an initial survey indicated that although most countries do have drinking water quality guidelines, only a few are enforcing these guidelines. It was evident that most of these countries do not incorporate analytical variability in the application of analytical results for compliance studies. A clear link between the regulator, the producer and the analyst does not exist. An effective system that assesses compliance to drinking water specifications and at the same time ensures the consumer safe and healthy water, therefore, does not exist for most consumers. In an effort to provide guidance to members of IWA, the water supplier, the analyst and the regulator, workshops should be held during the next two conferences of IWA. The output of these workshops should be guiding documents and networking opportunities that will facilitate effective and efficient skills transfer for compliance monitoring of drinking water in all the countries of the world.