Disinfection byproducts (DBPs) in drinking water supply systems: A systematic review

Fresh water, despite being a renewable natural resource, is currently limited and scarce. Its necessity for life and economic growth has led to permanent conflicts of interest. Social and sectoral dynamics regarding water entail conflicts over use, alterations of natural conditions, effects on its availability, quantity and quality. Due to anthropic activities present in watersheds, freshwater systems around the world face the emergence of innumerable chemical substances that hinder their treatment possesses and favor the formation of other compounds. These include disinfection byproducts (DBPs), which are compounds that represent a risk to human health due to its mutagenic and carcinogenic nature. This study conducts a systematic review of the literature concerning DBPs in drinking water supply systems (DWSS). From the research questions formulated in the review, a knowledge gap has been identified, which suggests the problems linked to the appearance of DBPs in treated water, should be addressed within an interdisciplinary and systemic approach. This implies the development of methodological, sociological, ecological and technological processes that allow an understanding of the problem from a holistic and integrative perspective. The occurrence of DBPs in drinking water treatment plants cannot be reduced to the product of chemical reactions between precursors and disinfectant agents such as chlorine; on the contrary, the problem presumes a much more complex origin that requires an analysis of the actions and processes that are carried out in territories and potentiate the deleterious processes in terms of water quality.