Rapid Assessment of Drinking Water Quality: a Handbook for Implementation

In the year 2000, the United Nations established a Millennium Development Goal to halve the number of people that are unable to reach or afford a safe water supply by 2015.

Recent statistics on water and sanitation do not provide specific evidence regarding the quality of water being provided to communities, households and institutions, therefor the 'safety' of the drinking water supply can only be inferred.

There is, therefor, an urgent need to obtain independently verifiable water quality data to support national governments in their effort to provide safe water to households.

Such data provides useful information regarding current conditions and the likely public health burden related to inadequate and unsafe water supply.

At the same time this data will determine the extent of major water quality problems and provide an indication of future investment priorities.

In order to address the water quality issue in a more comprehensive manner, the development of rapid assessment methods for water quality assessment using low-cost, field-based techniques has been identified as important.

This handbook provides information on how rapid assessments of water quality can be undertaken using statistically valid approaches to survey design; the selection of parameters and appropriate analytical techniques; development and application of inspection and risk assessment methodologies; and, analysis and reporting of the assessment data.

This handbook should prove of value to staff of governments and development partners in undertaking assessment and interpreting the information generated.