EU has initiated a new Drinking Water Directive. The new Directive was adopted by the EU - Council in November 1998 (Council Directive 98/83/EC). The first EU Drinking Water Directive was initiated in 1980 and has since provided the consumer secure drinking water quality throughout the EU. However, because it was both out of date with respect to scientific/technical basis and management approach (original proposal was made in 1975).

Main thrusts of the Commission Directive are:

• Review of parametric values, and where necessary strenghtening them in accordance with the latest available scientific knowledge (WHO Guidelines, Scientific Committee on Toxicology and Ecotoxicology)
• Increased transparency:
  
  • "Tapwater Directive" i.e. the point of use is the point of compliance with the quality standards
  • reference to ISO/CEN standards
  • obligation to report on quality
  • obligation to inform the consumer on drinking water quality and measures that they can take to comply with the requirements of the Directive -in particular for lead- when the non-compliance is because of the domestic distribution system (internal pipes, plumbing etc)
• Streamlining legislation to parameters essential for health and environment: 66 parameters in the old directive have been reduced to 48 (50 for bottled waters)in the new one, including 15 new parameters

More information 


External Links
 http://europa.eu.int/comm/environment/water/water-drink/index_en.html