Stricter measures will be taken for water quality management of Arisu, the brand of the running water supplied to households in Seoul. The number of Arisu water quality inspection items will be more than those recommended by the WHO, and water quality inspection will include inspection of radioactive materials.

In a bid to supply safer piped water to residents, the Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) will increase the number of regular Arisu water quality inspection items from 164, which was set in 2015, to 170 in 2016. The number is larger than that recommended by the WHO (163).

The increase in the water quality inspection items, which includes 59 statutory items and six additional items to be supervised by the SMG, is contained in a number of amendments to the Enforcement Rules of the Seoul Water-related Municipal Ordinance promulgated on July 28, 2016. The SMG increased the inspection items to cope with changes in the quality of feed water due to climate change, and to strengthen the inspection of new materials.

Even prior to 2016, the SMG carried out Arisu water quality inspection by increasing the number of water quality inspection items year after year in accordance with international standards with the goal of making Arisu water safer to drink.

The six additional items to be supervised by the SMG include algal toxins occurring due to climate change, industrial chemical substances, disinfection byproducts, and radioactive materials.

It is also noteworthy that the SMG plans to cope with changes in the environment proactively by including radioactive material Iodine-131 in the inspection items. In the precision inspection of artificial radionuclides carried out on feed water from the Hangang River and the purified running water supplied to households in January, no radioactive materials were detected.