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Notice to Readers: National Drinking Water Week --- May 6--12, 2007
Safe drinking water is vital to public health. Each year, the American Water Works Association and an alliance
of organizations, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), sponsor National Drinking Water Awareness
Week to highlight the importance of tap water and the need to reinvest in water infrastructure. The theme for 2007 is Only
Tap Water Delivers (1).
Worldwide, approximately 1.1 billion persons lack access to an improved potable water
source,* and an estimated 3 million persons in developing regions of the world die each year from infectious diseases related to unsafe water and
inadequate sanitation (2). In contrast, the United States has one of the safest water supplies in the world. In 2005, more than
52,000 community water systems supplied approximately 93% of the U.S. population with tap water
(3,4), and more than 92% of public water systems were in full compliance with health-based drinking water standards
(3). Nonetheless, an estimated 4 million to 33 million cases of gastrointestinal illness associated with public drinking water systems occur
annually in the United States (5,6). These estimates do not include illnesses that occur in the estimated 45 million persons served by small
or individual water systems (4,7) or illnesses that are not gastrointestinal.
The occurrence of drinking-water--associated disease highlights the importance of maintaining and improving the
nation's water infrastructure. EPA promotes practices to change how the nation views, values, manages, and invests in
its water infrastructure so that water systems are sustainable and will be available to serve future generations. EPA is working
with the water industry to identify best practices to help
water utilities address aging infrastructure, efficient water use,
and watershed protection (8).
American Water Works Association. Only tap water delivers: drinking water week 2007. Available at
http://www.awwa.org/advocacy/dww.
Hutton G, Haller L. Evaluation of the costs and benefits of water and sanitation improvements at the global level. Geneva, Switzerland: World
Health Organization; 2004. Available at
http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/en/wsh0404.pdf.
US Census Bureau. Annual estimates of the population for the United States, regions, and states and for Puerto Rico: April 1, 2000 to July 1,
2006 (NST-EST2006-01). Available at
http://www.census.gov/popest/states/NST-ann-est.html.
Colford JM, Roy SL, Beach MJ, Hightower A, Shaw SE, Wade TJ. A review of household drinking water intervention trials and an approach to
the estimation of endemic waterborne gastroenteritis in the United States. Journal of Water and Health 2006;4(Suppl 2):71--88.
Messner M, Shaw S, Regli S, Rotert K, Blank V, Soller J. An approach for developing a national estimate of waterborne disease due to drinking
water and a national estimate model application. J Water Health 2006;4(Suppl 2):201--40.
* Potable water that is supplied through a household connection, public standpipe, borehole well, protected dug well, protected spring, or rain water collection.
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Health and Human Services.
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Department of Health and Human Services. CDC is not responsible for the content
of pages found at these sites. URL addresses listed in MMWR were current as of
the date of publication.
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