About CSADW

About the Campaign

The Campaign for Safe and Affordable Drinking Water (CSADW) is a nationwide alliance of environmental, consumer and public health organizations working to educate the public about improvement and protection of our nation's drinking water sources.

The Campaign was founded in 1994 on Principles for Safe and Affordable Drinking Water which were endorsed by over 300 organizations from across the country. The Steering Committee recently updated these Principles and is once again looking for renewed support from organizations concerned about drinking water.

PRINCIPLES FOR SAFE AND AFFORDABLE DRINKING WATER

Preamble: Safe and affordable drinking water is a basic right for everyone. No matter where we live work or travel, and regardless of our age, physical condition, pregnancy, illness, race or other personal circumstances, this right must be honored and preserved. Therefore, the following principles should be observed as national policy. We must:

Protect our infants, children, pregnant women, frail elderly, chronically ill and other vulnerable people from drinking water contamination.
Ensure universal access to safe and affordable water for all communities, large and small, rich and poor and regardless of race or ethnicity.
Provide safe and affordable water for low-income households by adopting low-income water subsidies and progressive rate structures.
Strengthen, not weaken, drinking water standards and get high-risk contaminants out of our water supplies. (Such as lead, perchlorate, MTBE, disinfection byproducts, microbes, pesticides and radioactive contaminants)
Guarantee our right-to-know about our water with timely, understandable, complete and readily accessible information for every drinking water system, on the Internet and by other means.
Save taxpayers money and keep water safe through enforceable source water protection.
Preserve public control of and increase investment in public water assets.
Make polluters pay for drinking water protection and cleanup made necessary by their actions.
Streamline and strengthen government and citizen enforcement of drinking water laws, and provide legal remedies for consumers harmed by contaminated tap water.
Help communities pay to modernize old and unsafe water systems, emphasizing environmentally sound solutions that encourage smart growth, ensure safe and affordable water and create U.S. jobs.
Assure water security by using improved and inherently safer treatment technologies and real time monitoring.
Establish active waterborne disease surveillance and health tracking programs to measure both chronic and acute health effects of drinking water contaminants.
Support consumers by setting strong standards and right-to-know requirements for bottled water and home treatment units.