Hygiena 2009, 54(4):130-135

100th Anniversary of Permanent Drinking Water Disinfection and its Current Development

Vladimír Bencko¹, František Kožíšek^2,3

¹ Ústav hygieny a epidemiologie 1. lékařské fakulty UK a Všeobecné fakultní nemocnice v Praze

² Státní zdravotní ústav, Praha

³ 3. Lékařská fakulta UK v Praze, Ústav obecné hygieny

The introduction of sand filtration and bank infiltration in drinking water treatment in the middle of the 19th century represented significant progress in efforts to attain safe drinking water. That filtration was sufficiently effective only on condition the raw river water had not been excessively contaminated with pathogenic microorganisms. An acceptable measure of safety was attained only on the introduction of its disinfection. After a century since the introduction of continuous chlorination of drinking water along with the previously established filtration, it has been estimated that drinking water produced in this way can be attributed with the decrease of overall mortality in the population of large cities and industrial agglomerations almost by half at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, apparently all the more contributing to the lowering of the then registered neonatal and child mortality. The later discovery of certain limitations of the function of water disinfection including its negative aspect, namely the appearance of toxic by-products of disinfection, in the past two decades has led to the seeking of novel holistic approaches to the ensuring of safe drinking water, and has ended up in the so-called concept of water safety plans. From the public health point of view the introduction of running disinfected drinking water to households and its channeling in sewage systems together with systematic vaccination against selected infectious diseases represents the most significant milestone of the past millennium in health protection endeavors.

Keywords: drinking water, disinfection, history, infectious diseases, disinfection by-products, water safety plans

Received: August 2009; Accepted: September 10, 2009; Published: December 1, 2009  Show citation