Water quality control at Belgrade Waterworks

At the Belgrade Waterworks, we pay much attention to water quality control because of its importance to health of all Belgrade citizens. Checking the quality of basic victual for drinking, food preparation and personal hygiene is great responsibility and commitment that our company fulfills every day.

The water quality control is performed according to the valid Book of rules on hygienic accuracy of drinking water (Official Gazette FRY 42/98 анд 44/99), that defines requirements for control performance concerning type of analyses, number of samples, place and time of sampling. The Book is harmonized with EU directives and Recommendations of WHO.

There is a two-level control of water quality at the Belgrade Waterworks:

• In laboratories at plants that are equipped for analyzing basic physical and chemical parameters, in three shifts (the first level), and
• At the Department for sanitary water control (the second level), that has been a part of Belgrade Waterworks for 50 years.

At modernly equipped laboratories of our company, we perform physical, chemical, microbiological and biological analyses of parameters prescribed by the Book. The control includes samples of drinking water from all production plants, from the water tanks of the Belgrade water supplying system and consumers’ taps, and also samples of raw water that will be treated.

Water from production plants is controlled every day, from water tanks once a week, and from consumers’ taps on working days, 45 samples a day, according to the sampling schedule. At the Belgrade city area, we have defined around 190 tapping locations that are controlled twice a month, and on the basis of these analyses we have an insight into water quality.

Beside regular, we take samples on the basis of received complaints from the citizens. Then, we check water quality at taps of the consumer who submitted the complaint. Along with the water quality control performed at Belgrade Waterworks, there is a water control at the Institute for public health (the third level). Within one year, Belgrade Waterworks checks about 15 000 samples, and City administration around 7000 samples of water.

According to several thousand samples and tens of thousands of analyzed parameters, expert teams from Belgrade Waterworks and the Institute mark the water quality from the Belgrade water supplying system. The results of the analyses show that the water from the Belgrade Waterworks system is hygienically accurate for drinking.