K3.3 Microbiological quality of drinking water

Proportion of the population that has access to drinking water of good microbiological quality

One of the most important goals of public health is to provide everyone with access to safe drinking water, in sufficient quantities and at low cost. Providing access to safe drinking water is one of the first preventive measures that have historically contributed to improving health and extending the average length of life.

The microbiological quality of drinking water plays a decisive role in the prevention of the occurrence, development and spread of intestinal infectious diseases, and more broadly, all other infectious diseases, as it represents the basic condition for maintaining personal hygiene and sanitary-hygienic conditions in the internal and external environment (residential, working, educational and protective, leisure...).

Proportion of residents who have access to drinking water of good microbiological quality from supply areas that are included in the national drinking water monitoring program.

Proportion.

Indicator Microbiological quality of drinking water is the ratio between the number of inhabitants who are supplied with drinking water of very good or good quality (indicators of fecal pollution are not present, or are present in no more than 5% of samples during the observed period) and the number of all inhabitants of the municipality, multiplied by 100 As a rule, at least a three-year set of data from the national drinking water monitoring database is used for the calculation.

Microbiological quality of drinking water

$=\frac{The number of inhabi\tan ts in the municipality who are supplied with drinking water of good microbio\log ical quality}{The total number of inhabi\tan ts in the municipality}x100$

The source of data on the results of microbiological testing of drinking water is the NLZOH database: Monitoring of drinking water - http://www.mpv.si/

Data on the way residents are supplied with drinking water (number of users in the supply area(s) in the settlement) are obtained from waterworks operators and/or municipalities.

The source of population data is SURS.

The indicator is expected to be published annually from 2016 onwards.

The Drinking Water Monitoring database has been published annually since 2013.

1. National Laboratory for Environment, Health and Food. Drinking water monitoring. Available on 29/09/2016 at http://www.mpv.si/
2. Agency of the Republic of Slovenia for the Environment. Environmental indicators in Slovenia. Access to safe drinking water. Available on 29/09/2016 at http://kazalci.arso.gov.si/?data=indicator&ind_id=707
3. WHO. Guidelines for drinking-water quality, fourth edition. 2011. Accessed 29/09/2016 at http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/publications/2011/dwq_guidelines/en/

The number of microbiological tests of water samples is limited by the national drinking water monitoring program. Only this is low in the case of smaller systems (< 500 users) (two samples/year), which can affect the correctness of the interpretation of the statistical value of the proportion of suitability/unsuitability of samples, or drinking water quality assessments for these systems.

The monitoring database does not contain data on most water supply systems that supply less than 50 inhabitants, including their own supply of drinking water, so they are not taken into account in the calculation of the indicator.