Setting standards for water quality

This strategy features in the framework of Agenda 21 as formulated at UNCED (Rio de Janeiro, 1992), now coordinated by the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development and implemented through national and local authorities. Agenda 21 recommends establishing standards for discharge of effluents and for the receiving waters.

The Agricultural and Resources Ministerial Council of Australia and New Zealand was in 1977 preparing guidelines for cyanobacteria and cyanobacterial toxins in recreational and drinking waters.

Article 6(5)c of the Draft Protocol on Water and Health (1999) to the Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes (1992), states: the Parties shall each establish and maintain a legal and institutional framework for monitoring and enforcing standards for the quality of drinking water.