Microbiological Contamination of Water and Health

The microbiological quality of water has been a central focus for the United Nations family of agencies as they move from the Millenium Development Goals to the Sustainable Development Goals designed to reduce the burden of disease, often associated with poor microbial water quality, in many nations world-wide. This chapter first provides a guide to this major international effort which has reviewed and revised the global water quality agenda in this area. It then explains how UN agencies develop guidelines for microbial water quality. The recreational water quality guidelines are used as an example to illustrate how the science evidence-base is employed to design UN Guidelines that are often the starting point for nations and agencies, such as the European Commission, in defining legally enforceable water quality standards that employ the microbial parameters.