DRINKING WATER SECURITY AND HEALTH IN TRANSYLVANIA, ROMANIA

The presentation concerns three central water supply systems which process conventionally the water from artificial reservoirs supplying drinking water for more than 750,000 people. Like in other many regions, these Transylvanian surface water sources face the microbiological and chemical contamination generated mainly by a poor management of wastes and municipal residual waters. Usually the quality of drinking water is negatively impacted by the source contamination (accidental or not), water treatment (its absence, low efficiency, interruption) and contamination in the distribution network due to the poor technical status of the distribution network. Those factors lead to lack of microbiological security maintenance and minimal changes of chemical parameters. The main health risk as a result of the improper drinking water quality is the microbiological one, and the means to keep this risk within acceptable limits involve each water treatment step and ask for specific actions.