Microbiological safety of water

Significant advances in water treatment over the last century have resulted in massive improvements in the microbiological safety of public drinking w ater supplies in the UK and the developed countries. Incidences of illness due to poor treatment or post-treatment contamination are rare, but when th ey occur tend to attract considerable media attention. A well managed water treatment works and supply system can provide high quality drinking water wherever in the world it is located. As a rule, throughout the world, priva te supplies tend to be of a poorer quality than public supplies, but poorly managed public supplies have the potential to make a large number of peopl e ill and continued effort is needed to maintain and improve drinking water quality world-wide.