饮用水新国标今起全国实施

China’s new drinking water standards take effect on Sunday. This brings about 106 new quality indicators. That is up from 35 in the old version - which was approved in 1985. But the actual task of providing high quality drinking water nationwide may prove much harder in practice.

This mother of one relies on tap water daily for drinking and cooking, so the health and safety of the water translates directly into the health and safety of her and her family. Obviously she’s quite happy about the new standards.

Huang Mingming, Beijing resident, said, “I think the drinking water safety still depends on government policies and probes at different levels. Now that the new standards are coming into force, this is surely positive news for tap water quality and safety.”

The new standards for drinking water are much stricter than the previous one. In fact, the new ones match international standards. However, making standards is one thing, putting them into practice is another, and concerns still remain.

Today many residents depend on bottled water or purifiers. It may not be clear exactly how many will change their practices once the switch occurs, but some do seem to remain sceptical. Mr. Bai is one of them. He says he will continue to refill his five-liter tank twice a day.

Mr. Bai, Beijing resident, said, “I just feel that the quality of the water that comes from the municipal facility will drop after being diverted through pipes all over the city... even with the new standards.”

The new standards are more highly attuned to sniffing out potentially harmful contaminants, and require better purification measures like ozonization. Still, experts point to the aging network of water pipes throughout the nation as a lingering source of concern.

Fu Tao, director of Tsinghua Uni. Water Policy Research Center, said, “Speaking overall, upgrading water pipelines has not been tackled seriously enough nationwide over the past decade. A large number of pipelines are aging. The fact is that there are contaminated elements and sediments inside these pipelines, which cause potential risks. Investments are not only needed to upgrade water facilities more urgently, but they are needed to construct new pipelines as well.”

The new standards were adopted in 2007, but the central government allowed five years for local governments to prepare. In the practice though, there are only a small number of cities with facilities to test all 106 indicators.

Fu Tao, director of Tsinghua Uni. Water Policy Research Center, said, “Over the past five transitional years, there has been a lack of attention to the new standards. They were not taken seriously enough. The government at various levels and water companies did not invest enough in the new standards. Time has been wasted, and we are really off to a slow start on the new standards.”

As for ordinary people, Ms. Huang has hope. She says that over time the new standards should bring about positive change for her family and more than a billion people across China.