Chemical safety of drinking-water: assessing priorities for risk management
Rolling revision of the WHO Guidelines for Drinking-water Quality
Chemical safety of drinking-water is included in the plan of work of the rolling revision of the WHO Guidelines for Drinking-water Quality.
Background
The Chemical Safety of Drinking-water: Assessing Priorities for Risk Management supporting document provides tools that allow users to undertake a systematic assessment of water supply system(s) locally, regionally or nationally; to prioritize the chemicals likely to be of greatest significance; to consider how these might be controlled or eliminated; and to review or implement standards that are appropriate to specific circumstances.
Expected end-product(s)
Supporting document for publication in 2005
Progress to date
The Berlin Coordinating Committee meeting (2000) recognized that the Second Edition of the Guidelines for Drinking-water Quality did not provide sufficient information to enable countries, especially poorer countries, to be able to prioritize and select the chemicals that should be included in routine monitoring and assessments and recommended that an application-focused document be prepared, as outlined at that meeting. A draft protocol was reviewed at the expert consultation in Loughborough (2001), which made suggestions for improvement, to be discussed at the expert consultation on monitoring chemicals in drinking-water in Bangkok in December 2001. The Bangkok meeting (2001) decided to trial the draft document in a selected number of countries in the WHO Western Pacific Region to assess the document’s practicability. At the Chemical Aspects Working Group meeting (Tokyo, 2002), it was reported that draft texts had been developed through two meetings of experts in Bangkok and field trials in the regions. The text has been reviewed and will be published in 2005.