Drinking water guidelines

The Australian Drinking Water Guidelines (2011) - Updated November 2018​ are non-mandatory standards, designed using the best available scientific evidence to:

• address both the health and aesthetic quality of supplying good quality drinking water​
• provide an authoritative framework on what defines safe, good quality water, how it can be achieved and how it can be assured.

The guidelines are intended for use by all agencies involved in the supply of drinking water including catchment and water resource managers, drinking water suppliers, water regulators, and health authorities.

Consumers and the general community may also use the drinking water guidelines to understand how their water is managed.

The drinking water guidelines are part of the National Water Quality Management Strategy and are managed by the National Health and Medical Research Council.