Abstract

Household water is a collective noun for water put to use in households purposes other than drinking water, like flushing the toilet, filling the washing machine and sprinkling the garden or washing the car via outdoor tap. Use of household water complies with development of the environment and water supply. For household demands will possibly be less stringent than those for drinking water. For the consumer the most important risk factor is a higher susceptibility to a gastro-enteritis infection after exposure to pathogenic micro-organisms, especially viruses and protozoa. In this risk analysis which was carried out for a household water project with a known source water quality it was shown that the health risks associated with pathogenic micro-organisms from the washing machine or the applications washing machine, toilet flushing and the outdoor tap could not be dismissed. The exposure of the consumer to this type of water has been estimated for various applications as a worst case.