CRI听力:New Drinking Water Standard Come into Effect

The new national standard specifies a total of 106 tests, a significant increase from those under the 1985 drinking water hygiene code.
 
The new code tightens up the control of organic substances, microbes and disinfection byproducts in drinking water.

About 50 of the tests are designed to monitor organic substances in tap water.

Wang Zhansheng, a Professor of Environmental Engineering at Tsinghua University, helped draft the new standard.

He says the regulations are designed to try to tackle the hazards created by pollution.

"There was less pollution decades ago, and in recent years, new organic substances such as pesticides, disinfectants and chemical additives have been widely used. These substances will pose health hazards to the public. That's why the new standard includes a significant number of tests on organic substances."

The new standard, which was originally drawn up in 2006, has already been picked up by major cities, including Beijing and Shanghai, a few years ago.

Lin Aiwu is the director of water quality control center under Beijing Waterworks Group, the company that provides tap water to the city's urban and suburban areas.

"Beijing has been applying the new national standard since 2007. By June 2007, we were qualified to conduct the 106 tests. Right now, all the tap water plants across Beijing are using activated carbon to treat water coming from reservoirs and rivers."

However, the new tests and sophisticated treatment technology do not come cheaply.

For example, activated carbon can absorb organic substances and heavy metal in the water, but one ton of activated carbon costs about 14,000 yuan.

Apart from that, Lin says it costs around 38,000 yuan to conduct all the 106 tests.

Professor Wang Zhansheng says support from and supervision by local governments is the key to the national implementation of the new standard.

"Since it is not necessary to conduct all the 106 tests, provincial governments are supposed to choose elective tests, but local authorities have not paid much attention to the requirement. Local disease control centers should be responsible for overseeing the implementation of the new standards."

Wang also says water safety involves more than monitoring what flows from the tap, while equal importance should be attached to protecting drinking water sources.

The standard is expected to be adopted by all provincial capitals in the country by 2015.

For CRI, I'm Emily Hennessy.