It is still a reality that an estimated 1.1 billion people rely on unsafe drinking-water sources. Therefore the theme of World Water Day 2010 is focusing on raising awareness of water quality. IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre offers a wide selection of documents looking at the different aspects of water quality such as water treatment, health and technology. This information is for instance, available via the IRC digital library, the Source Newsletter and on the IRC web site: click here.

In the digital library 22 documents show up after typing water quality and health in the search box. You can click on the links to access the publications. Go to the digital library documents

The Source Newsletter also regularly publishes articles on water quality and you can do a search in the most recent issues to find information on this topic from around the world. Source news items selected

There are a number of practical publications on the IRC web site that you can download and read. There is an FAQ sheet on household water treatment.

The booklet Smart Water Solutions gives examples of small-scale innovative technologies to increase access to safe drinking water.

The popular publication ‘Small Community Water Supplies: Technology, people and partnership’ links water supply science and technology with the specific needs of small communities in developing countries. It has one chapter dealing with water quality and quantity and gives guidelines for different levels of service (Chapter 4). And another chapter deals with water treatment (Chapter 12).

The website for World Water Day is: www.worldwaterday.org

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