[Contribution of Communal Hygiene Department to creation and development of norm-setting basis of water sanitary legislation].

Legal regulation of problems related to drinking water supply to the population is a pressing social problem, particularly during the transitional period of Russian economic development. Communal Hygiene Department participated in the formation and development of norm-setting base of drinking water supply to the population since the thirties. During recent 5 years the Department contributed to development of the "Law on Drinking Water and Drinking Water Supply" (the first in Russia), basic normative legislative acts regulating hygienic requirements to drinking water quality, choice and exploitation of sources of drinking water supply, zones of their sanitary protection, and many methodological documents. The paper sums up the principal basis of new generation documents of sanitary legislation concerning water.