Monitoring drinking water

The European Commission Drinking Water Directive (Council Directive 80/778/EEC relating to the quality of water intended for human consumption) is a key instrument for safeguarding public health, establishing quality standards that must be respected where water is supplied for consumption. These standards extend to a range of substances, properties and organisms (called parameters). The directive fixes standards of zero presence for the organisms, total coliforms and fecal coliforms. While these are not necessarily harmful in themselves, they are good indicators of contamination of the water and the possible presence of human pathogens such as salmonella, and their presence is effectively a warning of a risk to public health. The directive therefore stresses the need for strict compliance with the standards. The compliance deadline was 1985.