Drinking water or potable water is water of sufficiently high quality that can be consumed

or used without risk of immediate or long term harm. In most developed countries, the water
supplied to households, commerce and industry is all of drinking water standard, even though
only a very small proportion is actually consumed or used in food preparation.

Over large parts of the world, humans have inadequate access to potable water and use
sources contaminated with disease vectors, pathogens or unacceptable levels of dissolved
chemicals or suspended solids. Such water is not potable and drinking or using such water in
food preparation leads to widespread acute and chronic illnesses and is a major cause of death
in many countries. Reduction of waterborne diseases is a major public health goal in
developing countries.

Typically, water supply networks deliver potable water, whether it is to be used for drinking,
washing or landscape irrigation. One counterexample is urban China, where drinking water
can optionally be delivered by a separate tap.

Water has always been an important and life-sustaining drink to humans and is essential to
the survival of all organisms.[1] Excluding fat, water composes approximately 70% of the
human body by mass. It is a crucial component of metabolic processes and serves as a solvent
for many bodily solutes. Health authorities have historically suggested at least eight glasses,
eight fluid ounces each (168 ml), of water per day (64 fluid ounces, or 1.89 litres),[2][3] and the
British Dietetic Association recommends 1.8 litres.[1] The United States Environmental
Protection Agency in risk assessment calculations assumes that the average American adult
ingests 2.0 litres per day.[3]

Water contains and contaminants Throughout most of the world, the most common
contamination of raw water sources is from human sewage and in particular human faecal
pathogens and parasites. In 2006, waterborne diseases were estimated to cause 1.8 million
deaths each year while about 1.1 billion people lacked proper drinking water.[4] It is clear that
people in the developing world need to have access to good quality water in sufficient
quantity, water purification technology and availability and distribution systems for water. In
many parts of the world the only sources of water are from small streams often directly
contaminated by sewage.

Most water requires some type of treatment before use, even water from deep wells or
springs. The extent of treatment depends on the source of the water. Appropriate technology
options in water treatment include both community-scale and household-scale point-of-use
(POU) designs.[5] A few large urban areas such as Christchurch, New Zealand have access to
sufficiently pure water of sufficient volume that no treatment of the raw water is required.[6]

Over the past decade, an increasing number of field-based studies have been undertaken to
determine the success of POU measures in reducing waterborne disease. The ability of POU
options to reduce disease is a function of both their ability to remove microbial pathogens if
properly applied and such social factors as ease of use and cultural appropriateness.
Technologies may generate more (or less) health benefit than their lab-based microbial
removal performance would suggest.

The current priority of the proponents of POU treatment is to reach large numbers of low-
income households on a sustainable basis. Few POU measures have reached significant scale
thus far, but efforts to promote and commercially distribute these products to the world's poor
have only been under way for a few years.

In emergency situations when conventional treatment systems have been compromised, water
borne pathogens may be killed or inactivated by boiling[7] but this requires abundant sources
of fuel, and can be very onerous on consumers, especially where it is difficult to store boiled
water in sterile conditions and is not a reliable way to kill some encysted parasites such as
Cryptosporidium or the bacterium Clostridium. Other techniques, such as filtration, chemical
disinfection, and exposure to ultraviolet radiation (including solar UV) have been
demonstrated in an array of randomized control trials to significantly reduce levels of water-
borne disease among users in low-income countries,[8] but these suffer from the same
problems as boiling methods.

Parameters for drinking water quality typically fall under two categories: chemical/physical
and microbiological. Chemical/physical parameters include heavy metals, trace organic
compounds, total suspended solids (TSS), and turbidity. Microbiological parameters include
Coliform bacteria, E. coli, and specific pathogenic species of bacteria (such as cholera-
causing Vibrio cholerae), viruses, and protozoan parasites.

Chemical parameters tend to pose more of a chronic health risk through buildup of heavy
metals although some components like nitrates/nitrites and arsenic may have a more
immediate impact. Physical parameters affect the aesthetics and taste of the drinking water
and may complicate the removal of microbial pathogens.

Originally, fecal contamination was determined with the presence of coliform bacteria, a
convenient marker for a class of harmful fecal pathogens. The presence of fecal coliforms
(like E. Coli) serves as an indication of contamination by sewage. Additional contaminants
include protozoan oocysts such as Cryptosporidium sp., Giardia lamblia, Legionella, and
viruses (enteric).[9] Microbial pathogenic parameters are typically of greatest concern because
of their immediate health risk.