Abstract: Drinking water is directly related to human health, which is one of the major livelihood issues concerned by governments all over the world. In the whole system of water environment protection and remediation, drinking water safety always occupies the most important and core status. At present, about 1.2 billion people in the world do not have access to clean drinking water and about 2.6 billion people lack safe sanitation facilities of drinking water. Therefore, drinking water safety has become a major environmental and health problem internationally.

This report first discusses the advantages and gaps of drinking water standards in China through comparison with those issued by international organizations and developed countries such as World Health Organization (WHO), United States, European Union, and Japan. Second, the main problems of drinking water safety in China are summarized as follows: imperfect drinking water standards, conventional treatment processes being still dominant in water treatment plants, difficulties in water quality maintenance and leakage control in pipe networks, insufficient water quality monitoring and detection capabilities, and weak foundation for rural drinking water safety. Third, the main technical countermeasures are put forward from all aspects of drinking water safety: water quality risk assessment methods, water source ecological improvement, novel water purification processes, and safe water distribution of pipe networks. Finally, future prospects are proposed concenring the control of emerging contaminants and combined pollution effect as well as the development of green water treatment technologies and information management platforms.

Keywords: Drinking water safety; Standards; Problems; Countermeasures; Prospects

Biography: Prof. Qiang is currently Director of the Key Laboratory of Drinking Water Science and Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and a registered Professional Engineer in Ohio, USA. He received his BS (1994) and MS (1997) from Tongji University and PhD (2002) from the University of Delaware. Then he worked from Postdoctoral Fellow to Research Associate Professor at the Missouri University of Science and Technology. In 2006, he joined the Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, as an overseas outstanding scholar. He leads a research team focusing on emerging contaminants control, water advanced treatment and disinfection, and water distribution system leakage control and optimized operation. He has published more than 220 research papers (including 42 ES&T and Water Res. papers), and been authorized 9 invention patents. He was awarded the IWA East Asia Regional Project Innovation Award (2014), Distinguished Young Scholar of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (2015), Beijing Science and Technology Award (2015), and Huaxia Construction Science and Technology Award (2018).