Study supporting the revision of the EU drinking water directive : final impact assessment report; Part II: impact assessment

The European Union (EU) Drinking Water Directive (DWD), adopted in 1998, has been key to delivering high-quality drinking water across Europe. Despite its success illustrated by the high level of compliance to the requirements of the DWD achieved by Member States (MS), the implementation of the DWD is facing many challenges such as: drinking water quality problems in small Public Water Supplies (PWS) in remote and rural areas; no attention given to inhabitants not connected to PWS; a focus on a list of pollutants (parameters) that has not been up-dated since the adoption of the DWD and that does not consider emerging pollutants; monitoring provisions for these parameters that are not flexible nor cost-effective; no coherent approach to address potential contamination from materials in contact with drinking water; or, untapped potential to provide easier access to up-to-date information for consumers and citizens in general. To address these challenges, the European Commission (EC) launched a process for reviewing the EU DWD. This process builds inter alia on a series of complementary activities such as: (a) an EU-wide consultation on the current state of the DWD implementation; (b) the ex-post evaluation of the current DWD to assess whether it is "fit for purpose" and achieves its objectives; (c) the identification of adaptations (or Policy Options) in the current EU drinking water policy framework that would help addressing above-mentioned challenges; and, (d) the assessment of the economic, environmental and social impacts of these Policy Options (PO).