Drinking Water Directive
- What is this
The 2020 Drinking Water Directive protects human health from adverse effects of any contamination of water intended for human consumption by ensuring that it is wholesome and clean. It is one of the key directives for our sector.
- What do we want
For EurEau, it is imperative that our drinking water should remain of high quality while being affordable for everyone.
EurEau welcomed the revision of the DWD, as European water services strive to guarantee wholesome and clean drinking water to consumers. We supported the underlining philosophy of the directive to ensure the protection of public health.
For EurEau, the priorities were clear. A new directive had:
- to protect citizens’ health and consider water supply “from catchment to tap” in the spirit of the WHO Water Safety Planning approach
- to have a list of parameters and parametric values in line with the WHO recommendations
- to finally get EU-wide hygienic requirements for the materials and products in contact with drinking water.
It is good to see that the European co-legislators largely supported these objectives.
EurEau is now monitoring the implementation of the DWD at Member State level while contributing to the development of secondary legislation such as the first Watch List, developing analytical method to measure microplastics, participating in the European Commission’s DWD Expert Group as well as work on water leakage.
- Links to key positions and briefings
Briefing note on drinking water supply and leakage management
Briefing note on PFAS and drinking water