National Drinking Water Quality Strategy 2011- 2025

The National Drinking Water Quality Strategy sets provisions to facilitate the access of all people to safe drinking water and increase the public health. The main objectives of the Policy include: preserve drinking water resources from pollutants; protect drinking water resources and facilities from intentional pollution, sabotage and bioterrorism; develop and make the proper use of technologies of drinking water treatment systems; formulate drinking water quality standards; prevent public health risk arising from installations of the water supply systems or the used chemicals; improve the public access to safe drinking water in rural and urban areas; execute the drinking water safety program in the country; improve quality of the bottled and mineral drinking water, their packaging and supply; manage the safe water supply in emergencies; create the comprehensive and transparent water database; improve public awareness, public education and public collaboration on water-related issues; observe health and safety instructions in development of the non-drinking water system; combat adverse impacts of climate change on quality of drinking water. Ministry of Health and Medical Education is the authority responsible to implement the provisions of this Policy and coordinate the activities of the related institutes and departments. The Policy introduces several strategies which should be followed by different department of the government. The Ministry of Health and Medical Education should consider the following strategies: constant observance and inspection of drinking water quality; support national research projects on quality of drinking water and its impact on public health; revise the existing methods of water quality test and result analyze; monitor the quality and quantity of the additives and quality of the water supply installations; monitor the importation, manufacture and supply of the household water purification system; set and promote national water safety programs; monitor bottled and mineral water factories; increase public awareness on water safety, water safety in emergencies, households purification systems, and safety of the bottled and mineral water. The strategies which mainly address the Department of Environment include: determine the human and environmental hazards for different drinking water resources; make plans to control and eliminate the pollutants near drinking water resources; prevent the pollution of watercourses and water entering the drinking water resources; determine the impacts of climate change on drinking water resources and anticipate the probable changes in water quality. According to the Policy, Ministry of Agriculture should monitor the use of toxins and pesticides in the agricultural fields near drinking water resources and to replace the chemical toxins with biological and mechanical methods.