Publisher's Synopsis
Selected Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Water Supply and Water Quality, held in Krakow, Poland, 11-13 September 2000. The conference topics included municipal and rural water supply and protection, treatment and distribution; quality deterioration in pipes; water management and pricing, inline with the global trend towards integrated watershed management. The 32 papers selected for these proceedings cover both classical themes in technology and current distribution management issues. Diverse aspects of water supply and water quality management were covered: ethical, financial, public relations and political issues. Although water treatment technology occupied the most prominent position, with particular emphasis on multi-barrier protection systems, issues other than advanced technology were also debated. The latter included ways of regaining the public's trust that seems ever more elusive in the wake of recent deaths from drinking tap water in Canada and the USA. Attention was focused on the deterioration of water supply and its modelling, and on the fact that it is more cost-effective to protect the water supply that to treat contaminated water. Degradation of water quality in the distribution network has been discussed at length as the consumer, who is asked to pay more for water, begins to demand higher quality. Many water supply issues can be solved through advanced science and technology, but a great many require political and social action. The delivery of safe and tasty water, at the lowest cost and in an environmentally and socially sustainable manner, remains a difficult task. As demonstrated in the high-quality work assembled here, concerted effort is needed that will combine the work of the technologist, watershed manager, urban planner, and economist as well as the public relations specialist, to convincingly explain to society at large the real and perceived risks, the benefits and the necessary costs.