The Drinking Water Directive will be a corner stone in all those Member States that were without internal rules to control the water quality intended for the human consumption. In the DWD there are two specific articles which are setting down rules for any Member State related to the communication that it is required: Art. 17 and Art. 18.

The Article 17 requires that Member States shall ensure that adequate, up-to-date information on water intended for human consumption is available and they shall ensure too that all persons supplied with such water receive the information regularly and at least once a year, without having to request it, and in the most appropriate and easily accessible form, for example on invoices or by digital means such as smart applications.

Any Member State shall prepare internal processes and organizations to fulfil to the settled tasks; they shall provide at least the following data:

(a) information on the quality of water intended for human consumption, including the indicator parameters;

(b) the price of water intended for human consumption supplied, per litre and cubic metre;

(c) the volume consumed by the household, at least per year or per billing period, together with yearly trends of the household consumption, if technically feasible and if this information is available to the water supplier;

(d) comparisons of the yearly water consumption of the household with an average household consumption, when applicable in accordance with point (c);

(e) a link to the website containing the information set out in the Directive.

The Article 18 requires that any Member State:

(a) set up and update every six years thereafter, a data set containing information on measures taken to improve access to and promote the use of water intended for human consumption, and on the share of their population that has access to drinking water;

(b) set up and update every six years thereafter, a data set containing information related to the risk assessment and risk management of the catchment areas for abstraction points and set up and update every six years thereafter, a data set containing information related to the risk assessment of domestic distribution systems including the following elements:

(i) information on catchment areas for abstraction points;

(ii) the results of the monitoring; and

(iii) concise information on measures taken;

(c) set up, and update annually thereafter, a data set containing monitoring results, in cases of exceedances of the parametric values and information about the remedial actions taken;

(d) set up, and update annually thereafter, a data set containing information on incidents relating to water intended for human consumption that have caused a potential risk to human health, including the causes of those incidents and remedial actions taken; and

(e) set up, and update annually thereafter, a data set containing information on all derogations granted.

Further, Member States shall ensure that the Commission, the EEA and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control
have access to the data sets.