Regional disparities of microbiological drinking water quality: assessment of spatial pattern and potential sociodemographic determinants

Abstract

Even in industrialized countries like Germany, drinking water quality is a sensitive issue. Despite a generally high level of drinking water safety, contamination events do occur. We address the question whether demographic change may cause a spatial mismatch between installed capacities at the supply side and actual demand by water users, thereby increasing risks of microbiological contamination. Our investigation is based on a quantitative analysis using the largest publically available data-set on drinking water quality in Germany. We found that the number of reported contamination events in areas affected by population decrease was about twice as high as in areas with a stable or growing population. The relative frequency of microbiological contamination was found to be significantly correlated with rapidly depopulating areas. We conclude that in regions with negative population development, a statistically higher risk of microbiological drinking water contamination may coincide with a greater risk of recontamination during a longer passage in the distribution network.

Keywords:

• Drinking water hygiene
• microbiological contamination
• regional disparities
• demographic change
• population shrinkage
• Germany

Acknowledgements

The results presented in this paper are based on the research and development project ‘Development and Implementation of a Concentration and Detection System for the Inline Monitoring of Waterborne Pathogens in Raw and Drinking Water (EDIT)’ which is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) in the framework of the funding program ‘Smart and Multifunctional Infrastructural Systems for Sustainable Water Supply, Sanitation and Stormwater Management (INIS)’ which is part of the FONA (Research for Sustainable Development) initiative. We acknowledge the support provided by the Project Administration Jülich (PTJ) and the INIS networking project.

Notes

1. Colony counts at 36 °C were not reported in Germany between 2010 and 2013.