Recent advances in drinking water disinfection: Successes and challenges

Abstract

The need for water disinfection in the developing world is undeniable. Disinfecting drinking water is critical for achieving an adequate level of removal or inactivation of pathogenic organisms that exist in raw water, for preventing recontamination of drinking water within the distribution system, and maintaining drinking water quality throughout the distribution system (USEPA 1999; AWWA 2001a; Sommer et al. 2008; WHO 2011). Waterborne diseases cause about five million human deaths per year, at least half of which are children (UNICEF 1995). Therefore, water utilities have the vital responsibility of managing water quality risks to ensure the safety and quality of water supplied to their customers. Since the beginning of the nineteenth century, inactivating and or removing pathogenic organisms (disinfection) from drinking water have been the main approaches to safeguard drinking water quality (Hrudey and Hrudey 2004). In the absence of drinking water disinfection, people are subject to falling ill from infectious diseases, caused by pathogenic bacteria, viruses, and protozoan parasites. © 2013 Springer Science+Business Media New York.