Status of Community Drinking Water in Korea and Implications for Appropriate Management

Abstract

Community drinking water (CDW), mostly naturally flowing groundwater, plays important roles in supplying drinking water for urban and rural residents in Korea. Over 1,600 CDW facilities are distributed throughout the country, many of them situated in the outskirts of metropolitan cities. A large proportion of Korean people have become dependent on CDW for drinking due to a distrust of piped water's quality and a strong belief in the special medicinal effects of some CDWs. However, administrative and official management and the control of CDW facilities have been inadequate when compared with the strict examination and control of commercial bottled water, which is physically treated groundwater from deep bedrock aquifers. In this study, even though signs of anthropogenic contamination were not generally found, the tested chemical compositions of selected CDWs featured high enrichment of some constituents including Ca, Mg, Na, and HCO 3 with natural origins such as water-rock interactions. Careless consumption of particular CDWs, which has no scientific basis, will not guarantee health improvement. Consequently, more intensive management of CDW facilities and a long-term interdisciplinary examination of the health effects of CDWs are needed to effectively protect people's health.

Challenges of Groundwater as Resources in the Near Future

“…Korean people do not have any belief in quality of surface water or piped water (Lee et al, 2013), so they usually boil the piped water for drinking or they buy bottled waters made of groundwater. But it is much disappointing that government officials and people do not recognize the values of the precious groundwater as resources.…”

Current Status of Groundwater Monitoring Networks in Korea

“…All the water quality analysis results are reported to the city or central government and then finally to the ME. the groundwater, water quality is also strictly controlled by the ME as bottled water consumption keeps increasing [49]. The bottled water companies are required to conduct water quality analysis: for bottled water, a 51 parameter water analysis including uranium level is performed at least every three months; for the raw groundwater in the production well, a 47 parameter analysis is conducted every year.…”