Lou Jie-Chung, Lee Wei-Li, Han Jia-Yun
Institute of Environmental Engineering, National Sun Yat-Sen University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, ROC.
J Environ Manage. 2007 Jan;82(1):1-12. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2005.11.017. Epub 2006 May 8.
Two surveys of consumer satisfaction with drinking water conducted by Taiwan Water Supply Corp. are presented in this study. The study results show that although a lot of money was invested to modify traditional treatment processes, over 60% of local residents still avoided drinking tap water. Over half of the respondents felt that sample TT (from the traditional treatment process) was not a good drinking water, whether in the first or second survey, whereas almost 60% of respondents felt that samples PA, PB, CCL and CT (from advanced treatment processes) were good to drink. For all drinking water samples, respondent satisfaction with a sample primarily depended on it having no unpleasant flavors. Taiwan Environmental Protection Administration plans to revise the drinking water quality standards for TH and TDS in the near future. The new standards require a lower TH concentration (from currently 400mg/L (as CaCO(3)) to 150mg/L (as CaCO(3))), and a lower TDS maximum admissible concentration from the current guideline of 600 to 250mg/L. Therefore, this study also evaluated the impacts on drinking water tastes caused by variations in TH and TDS concentrations, and assessed the need to issue more strict drinking water quality standards for TH and TDS. The research results showed that most respondents could not tell the difference in water taste among water samples with different TDS, TH and alkalinity. Furthermore, hardness was found to be inversely associated with cardiovascular diseases and cancers, and complying with more strict standards would lead most water facilities to invest billions of dollars to upgrade their treatment processes. Consequently, in terms of drinking water tastes alone, this study suggested that Taiwan Environmental Protection Administration should conduct more thorough reviews of the scientific literature that provides the rationale for setting standards and reconsider if it is necessary to revise drinking water quality standards for TH and TDS.
本研究展示了台湾自来水公司进行的两项关于饮用水消费者满意度的调查。研究结果表明，尽管投入了大量资金来改进传统处理工艺，但仍有超过60%的当地居民避免饮用自来水。超过一半的受访者认为，无论是在第一次还是第二次调查中，样本TT（来自传统处理工艺）都不是优质饮用水，而近60%的受访者认为样本PA、PB、CCL和CT（来自先进处理工艺）口感良好。对于所有饮用水样本，受访者对样本的满意度主要取决于其是否没有令人不快的味道。台湾环境保护署计划在不久的将来修订饮用水中总硬度（TH）和总溶解固体（TDS）的质量标准。新标准要求更低的TH浓度（从目前的400mg/L（以碳酸钙计）降至150mg/L（以碳酸钙计）），以及更低的TDS最大允许浓度，从目前的600mg/L降至250mg/L。因此，本研究还评估了TH和TDS浓度变化对饮用水口感的影响，并评估了是否有必要发布更严格的TH和TDS饮用水质量标准。研究结果表明，大多数受访者无法区分不同TDS、TH和碱度的水样之间的味道差异。此外，发现硬度与心血管疾病和癌症呈负相关，遵守更严格的标准将导致大多数供水设施投入数十亿美元来升级其处理工艺。因此，仅就饮用水口感而言，本研究建议台湾环境保护署应更全面地审查为制定标准提供依据的科学文献，并重新考虑是否有必要修订TH和TDS的饮用水质量标准。
