What Impact Does Government Water Policy Have On Drinking Water?



Section Summary: Around the world, water policy is set by local, national and international government bodies. These policies can have an impact on the availability or quality of drinking water. This section takes a look at the impacts these decisions can have on the consumer.

Here at TotallyDrinkable.com we recognise that there are many aspects to clean, drinkable and available water. If it were only as simple as turning on the tap and out poured perfect water every time!

But alas no.

Our elected representatives and unelected officials often have massive importance in the supply and price of utility services. Their influence may be in selecting suppliers, setting the rules those suppliers must obey, setting prices and oversight and regulation. In other words, almost everything!

With such wide ranging powers, keeping an eye on their work is of vital public importance. Of course, we cannot and are not trying to watch all local government officials around the world - who could? - but instead wish to provide some background information to some of the issues.

We hope that you find the following pages about water policy to be interesting:

Ensuring drinking water quality standards: From source to the tap

Bottled water quality: bottled water vs tap water

Can desalination technology solve the coming water crisis?

Water quality and availability concerns require demand management

Deforestation and water quality are inextricably linked

Water quality studies: monitoring our freshwater sources

Harnessing water's potential: What is hydropower?

Water and climate change

Understanding EU Water Directives