Drinking water quality standards

Drinking water quality standards are a set of rules that tell us how clean our drinking water needs to be in order to drink it safely.

Think of drinking water like a glass of lemonade. Just like how you wouldn't want to drink lemonade that has too much sugar or too much lemon juice, we also don't want to drink water that has too many bad things in it.

There are different types of bad things that can be in drinking water, like bacteria, viruses, chemicals, and even tiny particles. When we make drinking water quality standards, we decide how much of these bad things can be in the water before it becomes unhealthy to drink.

These standards are set by different organizations, like the World Health Organization or the Environmental Protection Agency, and they vary depending on where you live.

To make sure our drinking water is safe, scientists and water treatment plants test it regularly to make sure it meets these standards. If the water doesn't meet the standards, steps are taken to clean it up before it's sent to our homes to drink.

So, just like how you want your lemonade to taste good and not have too much sugar or lemon juice, we want our drinking water to not have too many bad things in it so we can drink it safely.