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Drinking-water disinfection (1996)Each year 3,000,000 people throughout the world die as a direct result of drinking unsafe water. This colossal figure is particularly worrying when seen in conjunction with the 120 million people in the European Region who do not currently enjoy an uninterrupted supply of microbiologically safe drinking-water. Local authorities have the prime responsibility for eliminating this risk and dealing with instances of contamination, which, even when minimal, may result in catastrophic epidemics. It is up to them to do everything in their power to provide the population with a continuous supply of safe water. High-quality water can be guaranteed if certain simple rules are followed. One of these is disinfection of the resource by chlorine. This must continue to be a priority in every case, taking precedence over pre-treatment of water using highly specialized and often expensive techniques. Available in English, French and German from the WHO Regional Office for Europe. General information |