Water (Drinking)

Water and water resources are among the major concerns of today. The demographic, industrial and agricultural expansion taking place throughout the world has induced political authorities to concern themselves with the freshwater resources required for this growth. To all evidence, these resources are shrinking in both quantity and quality, and considerable investments and sound management of resources are needed to ensure the needs of the world population, specifically those of developing countries.

To take account of this situation, the standardization of services related to the management of drinking water is a new field of work being tackled by ISO/TC 224, Service activities relating to drinking water supply systems and wastewater systems - Quality criteria of the service and performance indicators. The new TC will work on standards for the various service aspects related to water management.

The future standards will place particular emphasis on the "results" aspect of the different service activities. They will provide latitude for the local, national or regional authorities in charge and to their administrators to determine the levels of result to be attained, and the means to be implemented in order to attain them. They will allow them to compare themselves, by benchmarking, with other water supply services.

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