AWWA ACE94046

The higher the quality of the source, the lower the risk from both microbial and chemical contaminants. Technology is available today to treat water of any quality so as to reduce the concentration of contaminants to virtually any desired level. However, except in very special situations, the costs are far too high for communities and the human frailties associated with operation and maintenance of that technology can result in serious impacts on human health. What can be said without contradiction is that, in the face of microbial contaminants such as Cryptosporidium, which are not readily monitored, inactivated or removed, and in recognition that monitoring and protection against the older diarrheal diseases is still not yet very effective in many developing countries, much more attention needs to be given to selection of the best sources available and protection of those sources through land use controls and sanitation measures on the watersheds. Our concerns have become similar to those which troubled our forebears 150 years ago; protection against infectious waterborne enteric disease.