Drinking water quality standards describes the quality parameters set for drinking water. Despite the truth that every human on this planet needs drinking water to survive and that water may contain many harmful constituents, there are no universally recognized and accepted international standards for drinking water.^[1] Even where standards do exist, and are applied, the permitted concentration of individual constituents may vary by as much as ten times from one set of standards to another.

Many developed countries specify standards to be applied in their own country. In Europe, this includes the European Drinking Water Directive^[2] and in the United States the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) establishes standards as required by the Safe Drinking Water Act. For countries without a legislative or administrative framework for such standards, the World Health Organisation publishes guidelines on the standards that should be achieved.