Withholding information on drinking water quality

Article 10(4) of the 1999 Draft Protocol on Water and Health to the 1992 Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes, states: Nothing in this Protocol shall require a public authority to publish information or make information available to the public if: (a) The public authority does not hold the information; (b) The request for the information is manifestly unreasonable or formulated in too general a manner; or (c) The information concerns material in the course of completion or concerns internal communications of public authorities where such an exemption is provided for in national law or customary practice, taking into account the public interest served by disclosure.

Article 10(5) continues: Nothing in this Protocol shall require a public authority to publish information or make information available to the public if disclosure of the information would adversely affect: (a) The confidentiality of the proceedings of public authorities, where such confidentiality is provided for under national law; (b) International relations, national defence or public security; (c) The course of justice, the ability of a person to receive a fair trial or the ability of a public authority to conduct an enquiry of a criminal or disciplinary nature; (d) The confidentiality of commercial or industrial information, where such confidentiality is protected by law in order to protect a legitimate economic interest. Within this framework, information on emissions and discharges which are relevant for the protection of the environment shall be disclosed; (e) Intellectual property rights; (f) The confidentiality of personal data and/or files relating to a natural person where that person has not consented to the disclosure of the information to the public, where such confidentiality is provided for in national law; (g) The interests of a third party which has supplied the information requested without that party being under, or being capable of being put under, a legal obligation to do so, and where that party does not consent to the release of the material; or (h) The environment to which the information relates, such as the breeding sites of rare species. These grounds for not disclosing information shall be interpreted in a restrictive way, taking into account the public interest served by disclosure and taking into account whether the information relates to emissions and discharges into the environment.