Ecological safety assessment of centralized water supplies in Ukraine

The article deals with research of the effectiveness of existing centralized water supply systems in Ukraine in order to establish new problems, which were not discussed and develop the mechanism of their solution. Assessment and analysis of the efficiency of centralized drinking water supply systems in Ukraine from the standpoint of environmental safety was conducted. During the statistical analysis, it was found that decrease of polluting substances in the drinking water according to the norms, established by the current legislation, does not solve the problem of providing the population by drinking water with safe parameters for human health. Most Ukraine settlements use surface water as a source of drinking water. The ecological status of surface waters in accordance with the analyzed data has deteriorated at present. Most of centralized drinking water supply and water treatment plants were designed decades ago and focused on another quality of water sources. At pre-sent they are unable to provide the necessary sanitary and toxic safety of drinking water supplied to the public. This problem is greatly complicated by periodic or constant presence in sources of water intake of organic substances of natural and anthropogenic origin. Features of natural and anthropogenic processes of formation organic substances in water sources exclude the possibility of complete control and especially their full stop. One of the main ways of solving this problem is the realization of measures to mitigate the effects of human impacts on water sources. These measures are aimed at improving the efficiency of centralized water treatment plants. Appropriate decisions for ensuring safe conditions for human life, makes it necessary to use the tool for assessing the impact of the environment on people. The main objective is to obtain and compile information on the possible impact on human health of substances that contaminate drinking water. Since these effects depend on the ecological condition of drinking water sources and the efficiency of water treatment plants, the solution of this task is carried out by assessing the environmental risk. It is defined as probability of occurrence of ill health. The authors propose the mechanism for managing the environmental safety of drinking water for the evaluation of the efficiency of water treatment plants. It uses an approach that depends on an assessment of potential risks to human health, considering the adverse constant (multiyear) influence of dangerous substances on human health. In this case, the potential risk of damage to health is a function of the dose of toxicant ingested. Risk assessment focuses on the expected growth of morbidity associated with the character of the toxic effects of priority substances. The authors propose estimation of the reduction in life expectancy as the quantitative aspect of potential risk. Results of research conducted by the example of the existing water treatment plant in Ukraine indicate the need to improve the current mechanism for evaluating the effectiveness of the systems of water supply and create a new methodical base, using the proposed approach.