ABSTRACT
In today’s culture, there is an interest in problems connected with municipal systems’ safety management, especially when a critical situation occurs.A water distribution system (WDS) affects the quality of water, which can undergo significant changes as it travels through the water distribution system from the point of supply and/or treatment to the point of delivery (Mays 2005). A water distribution system is one of the most important technical systems which belong to the so-called critical infrastructure of cities. Its aim is to supply consumers with a required amount of water, with a specific pressure and a specific quality, according to binding standards, and at an acceptable price. The programmes of the World Health Organization (WHO) concerning the sanitary quality of drinking water have been executed since the 1950s. In 1958, the WHO presented the first publication on that subject entitled “International standards for drinking water”, which was then updated in 1963 and 1971. Since the 1980s, the WHO has not proposed any specific standard values but has presented and documented estimates of risk associated with drinking water contamination from microbiological, chemical and radiochemical elements, recommending values which do not create health threats or for which threats are marginal (WHO/SDE/WSH 2002).
