Consumer's Guide to Drinking Water

• SOME FACTS ABOUT WATER
• ABOUT WATER AND AUSTRALIA
• WHO USES WHAT?
• THE WATER CYCLE
• URBAN WATER SYSTEMS
• Introduction
• Collecting water
• Storing water
• Transporting water
• Treating water
• Supplying the distribution system
• Managing wastewater
• Managing stormwater
• WHAT IS DRINKING WATER?
• A definition
• Defining good quality drinking water
• WHAT ABOUT BOTTLED WATER?
• WHY TREAT WATER?
• HOW IS WATER TREATED?
• Introduction
• Coagulation, flocculation and sedimentation
• Filtration
• Membrane filtration
• Microfiltration
• Ultrafiltration
• Nanofiltration
• Additional Treatments for Unusual Circumstances
• Water Stabilisation
• Disinfection
• Chlorination
• Chloramination
• Chlorine dioxide
• Ozone
• Ultraviolet irradiation
• IS A WATER FILTER NECESSARY?
• DELIVERING WATER TO THE COMMUNITY
• The distribution system
• Dual pipe systems
• What about rural and remote communities?
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community water supplies
• WATER AND HUMAN HEALTH
• Introduction
• Waterborne diseases
• What do the Guidelines say?
• How do you know if there are bugs in the water?
• Do chemicals in water affect human health?
• Inorganic chemicals in water
• Organic chemicals in water
• Disinfection byproducts
• WATER REGULATIONS, GUIDELINES AND STANDARDS
• ASSURING QUALITY
• WATER AND PUBLIC POLICY
• Overview
• Who is supplying the water now?
• Community consultation
• A fair price for water
• Demand management and water conservation
• Water restrictions
• WATER IN THE FUTURE
• Addressing tomorrow's problems
• Climate change
• Environmental degradation
• Salinity
• GLOSSARY OF WATER-RELATED TERMS
• APPENDIX 1
• Why is Australia's rainfall so variable?
• Irrigation
• More About Catchments
• Murray Darling Basin
• Adelaide's Mount Lofty Ranges
• Murray Darling Basin
• Adelaide's Mount Lofty Ranges
• AUSTRALIA'S LARGEST RESERVOIRS
• Dam
• Water recycling
• Australian Drinking Water Guidelines
• Development of drinking water guidelines in Australia
• More on pathogens
• Bacteria
• Viruses
• Protozoa
• Helminths
• More on water-related diseases
• More on indicator organisms
• Escherichia coli
• Thermotolerant coliforms
• Total coliforms
• Heterotrophic plate count (HPC)
• Changes in the use of indicator bacteria
• Cyanobacteria

Produced by the CRC for Water Quality and Treatment.

Note This publication was last updated in December 2006. Since then, there have been changes in water use patterns due to continuing drought and water restrictions across Australia. In addition, structural changes in the management of water supplies have occurred in several states. Some of the information contained in this Consumer's Guide is therefore no longer current.

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