The Drinking Water Directive (DWD) aims to protect human health by ensuring that drinking water across the EU is safe, clean, and of high quality. It sets specific quality standards for various parameters, including microbiological, chemical, and organoleptic and requires regular monitoring by Member States.

Spain

How much of 's population receives drinking water meeting the quality standards set by the EU legislation?

In 2025, 87% of the total population has been supplied with water meeting the minimum water quality standards set out by the recast Drinking Water Directive. The situation has improved in comparison to the previous years.

Figure 1: Percentage of population (%) supplied with compliant drinking water

The information on the quality of drinking water is provided per water supply zone (WSZ). These zones are categorised by size: from zone than supply less than 10m³/day (cat 1) to zone that supply more that 100,000 m³/day (cat 6)

The drinking water quality of was temporarily non compliant in 2025 in 10 water supply zones, affecting ~2% of the total population (see table 1).

Table 1: Number of water supply zones where drinking water quality standards were exceeded at least temporarily during the year

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The Directive (DWD) aims to ensure safe and high.

In , xx% of the total population (~xx million people) was affected by incidents related to drinking water. The share and number of the population affected for different sizes of water supply zones are shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Percentage of population (%) affected by incidents for different sizes of water supply zones

In 2025, 14 incidents related to drinking water, which lasted more than 10 consecutive days and affected at least 1,000 people, were reported in European Union. The key causes of these incidents for different sizes of water supply zones are shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3: Number of incidents by cause for different sizes of water supply

Draft text to be revised: Incidents can be related to exceedances; this means that the monitoring results exceed the parametric values defined in the Drinking Water Directive.

In , XX incidents were related to an exceedance of the established drinking water quality standards. The percentage of incidents related to an exceedance for different sizes of water supply zones are shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4: Number and percentage (%) of incidents related to an exceedance, for different sizes of water supply zones

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How many exceedances of drinking water quality standards were reported? What were the causes?

In the context of the Drinking Water Directive (DWD), "exceedance" refers to a situation where the concentration of a specific substance, like PFAS, in drinking water exceeds the limit values set by the directive.

In 2025, 14 exceedances of drinking water quality standards were reported in . This contributes to 12% of total exceedances in the EU. The key causes of these exceedances are shown in Figure 6.

Figure 6: Key causes of exceedances for different sizes of water supply zones

How many derogations from the established water quality standards were granted in ? On what grounds?

In the context of the Drinking Water Directive (DWD), a derogation is a temporary exemption granted to a Member State from specific requirements of the directive, such as those related to water quality parameters. This exemption is only allowed under specific conditions, primarily when there's no potential danger to human health and when the water supply cannot be maintained by any other means

In 2025, 13 derogations from established drinking water quality standards were reported in , and 5% of the total population was affected by these derogations (~470,000 people).

Figure 7: Proportion of derogations by ground used (%)

Spain

How much of 's population receives drinking water meeting the quality standards set by the EU legislation?

How many incidents related to drinking water are reported? What were the causes?

How many exceedances of drinking water quality standards were reported? What were the causes?

How many derogations from the established water quality standards were granted in ? On what grounds?

What are the current costs of the remedial actions related to derogations in ?

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