Guidelines for drinking-water quality, third edition, incorporating first and second addenda (English) |

Guías para la calidad del agua potable, tercera edición (Espanol) |

The first and second editions of the Guidelines for Drinking-water Quality were used by developing and developed countries worldwide as the basis for regulation and standard setting to ensure the safety of drinking-water. They recognized the priority that should be given to ensuring microbial safety and provided guideline values for a large number of chemical hazards.

The third edition of the Guidelines has been comprehensively updated to take account of developments in risk assessment and risk management since the second edition. It describes a “Framework for Drinking-water Safety” and discusses the roles and responsibilities of different stakeholders, including the complementary roles of national regulators, suppliers, communities and independent “surveillance” agencies.

Developments in the third edition of the Guidelines include significantly expanded guidance on ensuring the microbial safety of drinking-water – in particular through comprehensive system-specific “water safety plans”. Information on many chemicals has been revised to account for new scientific information and information on chemicals not previously considered has been included. For the first time, reviews of many waterborne pathogens are provided.

Recognizing the need for different tools and approaches in supporting large and community supplies, the third edition continues to describe the principal characteristics of the approaches to each. New sections deal with the application of the Guidelines to specific circumstances, such as emergencies and disasters, large buildings, packaged/bottled water, travellers, desalination systems, food production and processing and water safety on ships and in aviation.

 Downloadable Individual Chapters

• Table of contents, Preface, Acknowledgements and Abbreviations [pdf 520kb]
• Chapter 1 - Introduction [pdf 501kb]
• Chapter 2 - The Guidelines: a framework for safe drinking water [pdf 490kb]
• Chapter 3 - Health-based targets [pdf 464kb]
• Chapter 4 - Water safety plans [pdf 586kb]
• Chapter 5 - Surveillance [pdf 487kb]
• Chapter 6 - Application of the guidelines in specific circumstances [pdf 552kb]
• Chapter 7 - Microbial aspects [pdf 600kb]
• Chapter 8 - Chemical aspects [pdf 663kb]
• Chapter 9 - Radiological aspects [pdf 488kb]
• Chapter 10 - Acceptability aspects [pdf 457kb]
• Chapter 11 - Microbial fact sheets [pdf 751kb]
• Chapter 12 - Chemical fact sheets [pdf 1.10Mb]
• Annex 1 - Bibliography [pdf 449kb]
• Annex 2 - Contributors to the development of the Third Edition of the Guidelines for Drinking Water Quality [pdf 529kb]
• Annex 3 - DELETED IN FIRST ADDENDUM OF THE THIRD EDITION [pdf 5kb]
• Annex 4 - Chemical summary tables [pdf 429kb]
• Index [pdf 507kb]