Water Quality Control from the Perspective of Water Supply System Users’ Safety

It is believed that the modern concept of quality is derived from the definition of Cicero, who in the first century BC created the Latin term “qualitas”, which meant a characteristic, property of the object. In the seventeenth century AD Descartes introduced the dualistic concept of quality, distinguishing the primary quality (weight, shape) and the secondary quality that comes from the senses (smell, flavour). After the Second World War, an American scientist W.E. Deming in Japan introduced a method of quality control. In turn, J.M. Juran defined quality as the degree to which a particular product meets the needs of the buyer. In this way a system of total quality management was created. As a result of scientific research and Japanese and American practical implementations, in the years 1985-1987 the ISO series 9000 were formed. Polish accession to the European Union caused a significant increase in the interest in national quality standards in water companies, which is received highly positively by drinking water consumers. A creator of a probabilistic methodology for safety analysis of technical objects F.R. Framer said that the risk depends not only on the severity and extent of the possible failures, but also on their likelihood The risk may be considered tolerable (controlled) when the growing loss corresponds to strongly decreasing likelihood of a serious failure or disaster (Haimes 2009). “Defence in Depth Philosophy” relies on the use of multiple barriers for physical, technical, procedural and organizational security. The activation of any barrier causes reactions at the local levels of system security. Directive 98/83/EC of 3 November 1998 on the quality of water intended for human consumption has committed member states to monitoring the quality of water intended for human consumption (EPA 2006). Member States should take all necessary measures to ensure regular monitoring of water quality to verify that the water available to consumers meets the requirements of current international legal norms. In 2004 in the third edition of Guidelines for Drinking-Water Quality the WHO presented guidelines for the development of so-called Water Safety Plans (WSP) (WHO 2002, 2004). which are intended for collective systems of water supply, and which meet the requirements