PS Drink - Priority-setting System to assess emerging risks for safe Drinking Water supply

During the last decades, new risks for drinking water resource quality frequently emerged. Emerging risks may be brought about by societal, economic pressure and climate change and may impose a public health risk. Notification of emerging risks, like the presence of pharmaceuticals in drinking water, often gives rise to public concern. To date, emerging risks are often identified in a non systematic way. As a consequence, emerging risks might be adressed late, thus making expensive control strategies necessary. On the other hand, not all emerging risks may impose a threat to public health.

The aim of this project is to develop an integrated approach to systematically identify, assess and prioritize emerging risks to the production and supply of safe drinking water and to develop effective strategies to communicate such risks. Specific research questions are:

  1. Which emerging risks for drinking water production can de identified by systematic screening of information from various sources?
  2. How can the identified (microbial and chemical) emerging risks be ranked and prioritized?
  3. How can prioritized risks be quantified and what remediation strategies are possible?
  4. What are the information needs from the public regarding emerging risks for drinking water production? What are effective strategies to communicate these risks?

Novel elements of the project are:

  1. The proactive systematic analysis of emerging risks combining literature, research data, information from registration databases and expert opinion
  2. The integrated approach for ranking of microbial and chemical risks
  3. The incorporation of risk perception and risk communication in the developed methodology

Project partners
TU Delft, Universiteit Utrecht - Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences,
RIVM - National Institute for Public Health and the Environment

Funded by
RIVM - National Institute for Public Health and the Environment

Project coordinator
Jan Peter van der Hoek

Period
2016-2020

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