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Among the European Union Directives enacted on water management and environmental protection, Directive 98/83/EC defines the mandatory quality standards for water intended for human consumption in order to protect human health. The implementation of this Directive has often encountered delays due to the following: the exact mechanisms for monitoring and enforcement have not yet been fully identified, several EU countries had set more stringent drinking water standards while others needed to update their national regulation, financial resources to comply with the directive were not always available, and the recent enlargement of the EU has raised further issues. In this study an evaluation of the regulations on drinking water in European and Mediterranean countries was carried out. The attention focused on Directive 98/83/EC and to its implementation in the Member States, also considering the recent (2004) EU enlargement, which brought ten new countries into the European Union. Finally, a comparison among the new standards on disinfection by-products (DBPs) adopted by the different countries is presented along with the USEPA approach to DBPs control.

Important innovations in the field of drinking water quality protection in Europe have been introduced during the last decade by Directives 75/440/EEC (amended by Directive 79/869/EEC and Directive 91/692/EEC) and 98/83/EC. Specifically, the introduction with EU Directive 98/83/EC of a new set of standards for water intended for human consumption, as derived from WHO guidelines [6], aims at achieving beneficial effects in the quality of water and in public health through the control of potentially damaging substances in drinking water and the identification of remedial actions to address failures. These innovations have, however, found very slow implementation, and, as result, relevant delays occur in many Member States. For instance, the European Commission in 2002 decided to take legal action against France, Greece, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, Belgium, Spain and the United Kingdom for noncompliance with EU Directives governing water uses including drinking water. Moreover, in January 2003, the Court of Justice ordered Belgium, Spain and the United Kingdom to pay costs by failing to adopt the laws, regulations and administrative provisions necessary to comply with Council Directive 98/83/EC. Perhaps one of the most contentious issue in the enforcement of Directive 98/83/EC relates to how water contamination standards are set and how to make them be respected. As a matter of fact, the same standards apply to all drinking water systems, regardless of the likelihood of the contaminant being found or the system’s technical and financial capability to monitor for and treat the contaminant. Furthermore, single European states have introduced additional parameters (such in the case of chlorite for Italy), setting, in some cases, more stringent standards, causing serious difficulties to the water supply companies. Based on the experience gained in the last years and on the issues raised during the enforcement of the EU Directives, the following should be considered: C Push towards the implementation of integrated management of water resources (from the catchment to the tap), with a harmonization of existing regulations also aimed at increasing raw water quality. C Develop appropriate support programs, especially for small communities. C Increase public interest and knowledge on DBPs issue aiming at maintaining or restoring consumer confidence in tap water. C Introduce, as mandatory requirements, specific treatments to maximize NOM removal in order to control also the DBPs not yet affected by regulation. C Expand reliance on a risk-based approach to set monitoring and management strategies by comparing the risk associated to microbial contamination and the risk associated to DBPs formation and exposure. C Guarantee effective disinfection of drinking water, balancing disinfection requirements and standards for DBPs.