10 Acceptability aspects: Taste, odour and appearance

Access to safe drinking-water is essential to health, a basic human right and a component of effective policy for health protection. The importance of water, sanitation and hygiene for health and development has been reflected in the outcomes of a series of international policy forums. These have included health-oriented conferences such as the International Conference on Primary Health Care, held in Alma-Ata, Kazakhstan (former Soviet Union), in 1978. Access to safe drinking-water is important as a health and development issue at national, regional and local levels. In some regions, it has been shown that investments in water supply and sanitation can yield a net economic benefit, as the reductions in adverse health effects and health-care costs outweigh the costs of undertaking the interventions. Experience has also shown that interventions in improving access to safe water favour the poor in particular, whether in rural or urban areas, and can be an effective part of poverty alleviation strategies. The World Health Organization (WHO) published three editions of the Guide-lines for drinking-water quality in 1983–1984, 1993–1997 and 2004, as successors to previous WHO International standards for drinking water, published in 1958, 1963 and 1971. From 1995, the Guidelines have been kept up to date through a process of rolling revision, which leads to the regular publication of addenda that may add to or supersede information in previous volumes as well as expert reviews on key issues preparatory to the development of the Guidelines.