Climate change, severe droughts, population growth, demand increase, and poor management during the recent decades have further stressed the scarce freshwater resources worldwide and resulted in severe water shortages in many regions. The water utilities address the water shortage by providing alternative source of water, augment the supplied water, supply intermittently, and even bulk water delivery under severe water shortage conditions. On the other hand, many households store water in building storage tanks to cope with insufficient delivery of potable water due to frequent interruptions. All these practices could pose crucial risks to the chemical and microbiological quality of the water. However, consistent monitoring and implementation of mitigation strategies could lower the potential risks associated with these practices. It is critical to identify the potential hazards resulting from the alternative water supplies and distribution practices to develop temporary and long-term monitoring and mitigation plans and reduce the microbial and chemical contamination of potable water delivered to the consumers. This paper provides a holistic review of the significant hazards associated with the practices employed by the water utilities and water consumers to alleviate the potable water shortage and discusses the required monitoring and mitigation practices.

近几十年来的气候变化、严重干旱、人口增长、需求增加和管理不善，进一步强调了全球稀缺的淡水资源，导致许多地区严重缺水。自来水公司通过提供替代水源、增加供水、间歇性供水，甚至在严重缺水条件下进行大量供水来解决水资源短缺问题。另一方面，许多家庭将水储存在建筑储水箱中，以应对由于频繁中断而导致饮用水供应不足的问题。所有这些做法都可能对水的化学和微生物质量构成重大风险。然而，对缓解策略的持续监测和实施可以降低与这些做法相关的潜在风险。确定替代供水和分配做法所导致的潜在危害，以制定临时和长期监测和缓解计划，并减少交付给消费者的饮用水的微生物和化学污染，这一点至关重要。本文全面回顾了与供水公司和用水者为缓解饮用水短缺而采取的做法相关的重大危害，并讨论了所需的监测和缓解措施。