Research

What's New

Introduction

The objective of the Drinking Water Quality and Health research programme is to provide the science base for policy on drinking water quality encompassing both health and consumer acceptability issues.  The Drinking Water Inspectorate works to protect public health by assessing whether water companies in both England and Wales are complying with the duty to supply wholesome drinking water as defined in the Water Supply (Water Quality) Regulations which implement the EU Drinking Water Directive (DWD) and national standards.

The adequacy of current levels of health protection is under continuous review and the decisions of the World Health Organisation (WHO), which sets global drinking water quality and health guideline values, drive the process of updating and revising the DWD. Future regulatory proposals may arise for chemical, microbiological and aesthetic parameters and so DWI must keep abreast of all these areas.

The programme as a whole, includes work to support the approval process for chemical and product s in contact with drinking water and projects aimed at better understanding the best practice in drinking in water regulation. Drinking water quality within distribution systems and preparation for the periodic review of water prices are also important topic areas.

Further information can also be found  in our Research Newsletters (see below).

Current Research

Information on our full research programme, listing the description, objectives, contractor and costings can be found on the Defra website at: http://randd.defra.gov.uk/ under the theme Drinking Water Quality and Health.

Future Research

The latest call for "Expressions of Interest" for three projects in the Drinking Water Quality and Health programme has been posted on the  Defra Science web pages , reference CTX0914.  They are:

"A review of fungi in drinking water and the implications for human health" (DWI 70/2/255);
" Review of the current monitoring to support the position of E Coli O157" (DWI 70/2/256); and
"A review of skin irritation complaints and tap water" (DWI 70/2/257).

Further details and the competition pack can be downloaded here (160KB). The closing date is 29 January 2010.

Completed Research

• Recent Research reports published between 2010 - 2000
  
• Archived Research Reports published before 2000 . (Executive summaries of published DWI Research reports can also be viewed on the Foundation for Water Research website.)

Research Newsletter

Issue 2 April 2009 (PDF 182KB)- provides a brief summary of recent outputs of the DWI research programme and the areas under consideration for future research. If you would like to receive an email notification when the next issue is published, please send an email to judith.bibaud@defra.gsi.gov.uk with the heading "Research Newsletter" in the subject box.

Conferences

None are planned at the moment, but one may be held later in 2008. Please watch this space for further updates.

Contact Point

Enquiries about individual projects of work for the above programme area, including publications of past research, should be directed to Peter.Marsden@defra.gsi.gov.uk .