Water system specialists from 16 nations, U.S. federal agencies, and water-related
professional groups met in Bozeman, Montana on May 9-12, 2004 as part of the colloquium
"Protecting Public Health in Small Water Systems" to consider a detailed set of issues
facing small water systems in the developed world. The purpose was to exchange
information and experience with the end result being guidance on improving small water system
performance. Among the issues were potential threats to public health, system
management and operation, personnel training and public education, regulatory
challenges, and models of system consolidation. Attendees agreed upon four principal
problems in small systems: incomplete understanding of public health risks; lack of
expertise on designing, organizing, managing, monitoring and operating small systems;
insufficient training and education at all levels of operation and oversight; and a
regulatory climate too focused on compliance rather than on risks to public health.
This paper summarizes a document entitled "Protecting Public Health in Small
Water Systems: Report of an International Colloquium" published in January of 2005
(Ford et al., 2005) that is available from the Montana Water Center. The full report can
also be downloaded at http://water.montana.edu/colloquium.
| Edition : | Vol. - No. |
| File Size : | 1
file
, 160 KB |
| Note : | This product is unavailable in Ukraine, Russia, Belarus |
| Number of Pages : | 5 |
| Published : | 11/01/2005 |
