Purification and Quality of Drinking Water: Issues and Concerns

Abstract

The Philippines is commiued to achieve the United Nations Millennium Development Goal Number 7 to halve by 2015 the proportion of population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and safe sanitation. This paper analyzes and discusses the puri lication processes and quality of drinking water and their regulation in the country; it further discusses issues and concerns and makes recommendations. The Local Water Utilities Administration (L WUA) have more than 6,280 water service providers (WSPs) which provide potable water to the country's 92 million population. The purification processes employed by the WSPs, such as Manila Water Inc. (large scale) and Laguna Water District (medium scale), rely mainly on conventional water purilication methods that include coagulation/flocculation. sedimentation, liltration and disinfection. The chemical disinfectant used is either chlorine (large scale) or chlorine dioxide (medium scale). Bottled water manufacturers use a combination of methods such as filtration, reverse osmosis, ozonation and others. The standards for drinking water quality are defined in the Philippine National Standards for Drinking Water 2007 (DOH Administrative Order No. 2007-2012) and apply to "all waterworks officials, developers and operators of water supply systems both government and private entities, water refilling station operators, water vending machine operators, ice manufacturers, all establishments and institutions that supply or serve drinking water. drinking water laboratories, health and sanitation authorities, the general public and all others concerned". Bottled drinking water manufacturers must also comply with Good Manufacturing Practices based on DOH-BFAD Administrative Order No. 18-A series of 1993, since bottled water is considered a food product and is directly regulated by the DOH Food and Drug Administration. It is recommended that existing policies on the quality of drinking water and monitoring procedures be reviewed and harmonized for all WSPs including water districts, bottled drinking water manufacturers. refilling stations and small bottlers. DOH should be empowered in terms or budget, structure and equipment. to effectively monitor and enforce compliance with quality guidelines. including monitoring of refilling stations and all bottled water manufacturers. Policies for recognition (more accurate term than accreditation) of water testing laboratories by DOI I should be: updated and should include laboratory space requirement and qualifications of persons certifying reports of analyses and evaluating laboratories. In addition to providing sate drinking water to its increasing population, the Philippine government should strive to strengthen the regulation or water service providers to ensure that thc standards for good quality drinking water arc met and sustained.