Quality of water intended for human consumption. Drinking Water Directive

The Committee of the Regions felt that it was important to ensure that the Directive continued to focus on human health, consumer protection and environmental conservation. The Committee welcomed the simplification of the parameters chosen to guarantee the general quality of water intended for human consumption, but felt that the range should be extended to require analysis of the microbiological parameters that were generally reckoned to provide an indication of whether water intended for human consumption contained harmful bacteria. The Committee regretted that the proposed directive did not include the parametric value for the total pesticide content of water intended for human consumption. It approved the Commission’s proposal to reduce the concentration of lead in water intended for human consumption but this required the replacement of pipework, resulting in high costs to local and regional authorities and to householders. The Committee called for EU funding to be made available to encourage the replacement of such pipework. It also proposed that the analysis parameters for total pesticide content be retained and that pesticide degradation products also be covered by the Directive. In addition, it recommended that emphasis be placed on the precautionary principle when setting the parametric values for trichlorethene and tetrachlorethene. EU citizens should have adequate information on this issue.