ABSTRACT
The overall benefits from and importance of improved drinking water supply for development are largely unquestioned. It has been suggested by the Director General of the World Health Organisation that “no single type of intervention has greater overall impact upon national development and public health than the provision of safe drinking water and the proper disposal of human excreta”. The overwhelming importance of infectious disease in relation to the adequacy of drinking water supply is recognised by the water supply and scientific communities. In comparison it has been argued that chemical aspects of drinking water quality are almost irrelevant where gross bacteriological contamination of water for consumption occurs and chemical contamination is of secondary importance where significant restrictions exist upon access to water. As a result of the International Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Decade, and other initiatives, worldwide water supply infrastructure has increased dramatically and population coverage with water supply globally was estimated to be 68%.
