World Water Day on 22 March 2016

To mark World Water Day, the public health department is offering an information stand on the topic of "Fluid balance and drinking" on Tuesday, 22 March 2016 in the Tietz City Library (3rd floor). From 2 p.m. to 6 p.m., visitors will receive personalised information on the topic and its effects on the nutrition of different age groups. From 3 p.m. to 4 p.m., staff from the hygiene department will provide specialised information on the subject of drinking water.

Interested members of the public are cordially invited to drop by.
For further information on this event, please call 0371 488 5390.

Background to World Water Day

The annual International World Water Day is a result of the 1992 World Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro and has been celebrated every year since 1993. The aim of World Water Day is to draw attention to the importance of water as the basis of life for mankind and its sustainable use.

Drinking water is precious, indispensable, vital and available to everyone around the clock. But is water also drinking water? According to the German Drinking Water Ordinance (TrinkwV), drinking water is "... all water, in its original state or after treatment, which is intended for drinking, cooking, preparing food and beverages ... "." It also includes water intended for other domestic purposes, such as personal hygiene and cleaning, the cleaning of objects that are intended to come into contact with food and the cleaning of objects that are intended to come into contact with the human body on a more than temporary basis.

In 2013, for example, according to the Federal Statistical Office, every Saxon consumed an average of 86.3 litres of water per day (compared to 121 litres in Germany) for preparing food, drinking, personal hygiene, laundry, dishwashing, cleaning the home, gardening and flushing the toilet.

The above-mentioned Drinking Water Ordinance also regulates limit values that must be observed for water when it is used for human consumption. If the limit values are exceeded, the water is categorised as insufficient by the health authority and may not be consumed as drinking water.

The drinking water from the reservoirs in our region is very low in salt and has a pH value in the slightly acidic range due to the low lime content of the soil and the solid rock that reaches the surface. This results in a very low degree of hardness ("soft water"). The benefits are literally in the cup - soft water gives coffee and tea an excellent flavour. A positive side effect is that dishwashers, washing machines and coffee machines become less calcified and remain functional for longer.

In Germany, around 70% of drinking water is obtained from groundwater and spring water. Our drinking water goes through many stages from extraction from the natural supply, through treatment, storage, distribution and supply to the consumer. The use of state-of-the-art technology by the water supply companies and compliance with the generally recognised rules of technology by the installation companies ensure that the drinking water reaches the end consumer in the best quality.

A dense network of official drinking water samples from the public health department and self-monitoring by the municipal and supra-regional water suppliers underpin the status of our drinking water as the best analysed foodstuff. It fulfils the criteria required by the Drinking Water Ordinance to be "free from pathogens, fit for human consumption and pure". The 3rd amendment to the Drinking Water Ordinance, which has been in force since 18 November 2015, takes further account of this high standard. New developments in drinking water hygiene are reflected in the legislation. For example, the requirements of EU Directive 2013/51/EURATOM on the protection of public health with regard to radioactive substances in water intended for human consumption are enshrined in it. In addition, natural, industrially and agriculturally caused substances, as well as "the last few metres" to the consumer, i.e. the influences of domestic installations, have also been "scrutinised" by legislators in Germany for some time. As a result, our drinking water legislation and the quality of our elementary basis of life, drinking water, based on it, have reached an outstanding level worldwide.

In Chemnitz, the staff of the hygiene department of the health authority took 1650 drinking and bathing water samples last year according to a territorially and temporally defined plan and had them analysed at the Saxony State Research Institute. As in previous years, it was found that our drinking water in the public network is in perfect condition. Under the influence of domestic installations, however, the drinking water can be subject to changes due to pipe materials and heating systems, which can be detected in chemical and bacteriological limit value exceedances.

In 2015, only 7% of drinking water samples were objectionable and these were mainly in the area of self-supply systems (wells). In most cases, the homeowner is responsible for the condition of the domestic installations and can remedy any impairments with technical means, regular inspections and maintenance of the in-house installation by specialised sanitary and heating companies and thus improve the drinking water quality for the tenants.

With regard to the new radioactivity parameters (radon - 222, tritium, guideline dose) anchored in the Drinking Water Ordinance since November 2015, it can be stated for the city of Chemnitz on the basis of previous supra-regional investigations in the years 2010 - 2014 that the test results have not revealed any indications of non-compliance with the parameter values.

Anyone interested can obtain advice on the subject of drinking water from the City of Chemnitz Health Department, Hygiene Division. Free information sheets and lists of authorised laboratories are available.

The public health department can be contacted by telephone on 0371 488 5832 and during normal office hours at the public health department, Am Rathaus 8, 09111 Chemnitz, 4th floor, room 428.