Microbiological safety of water

Signficant advances in water treatment over the last century have resulted in massive improvements in the microbiological safety of public drinking water supplies in the UK and the developed countries. Incidences of illness due to poor treatment or post-treatment contamination are rare, but when they 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, private 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 people ill and continued effort is needed to maintain and improve drinking water quality world-wide.