Drinking water quality remains a persistent challenge across regional and remote Australia. We reviewed public reporting by 177 utilities and conducted a national assessment of reported exceedances against the health-based and aesthetic guideline values of the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines (ADWG). Four definitions of a basic level of drinking water quality were tested to quantify service gaps across regional and remote areas of each subnational jurisdiction in 2018–2019. At least 25,245 people across 99 locations with populations <1000 reportedly accessed water services that did not comply with health-based guideline values. Including larger towns and water systems, the estimated service gap rises to at least 194,572 people across more than 115 locations. Considering health parameters and the ADWG definition of ‘good’ aesthetic characteristics, the reported service gap rises further to at least 627,736 people across 408 locations. Forty percent of all locations with recorded health exceedances were remote Indigenous communities. Monitoring and reporting gaps indicate that the actual incidence of non-compliance with the guideline values of the ADWG could be much higher than our estimates. Our results quantified the divergence in the assessment of water quality outcomes between Sustainable Development Goal Target 6.1 and the ADWG, demonstrated disparities between service levels in capital cities and the rest of Australia, and highlighted the need for place-based solutions. The methods and dataset provide a ‘proof-of-concept’ for an Australian national drinking water quality database to guide government investments in water services.

在澳大利亚偏远地区和偏远地区，饮用水质量仍然是一个持续的挑战。我们审查了 177 家公用事业公司的公开报告，并对报告的超出澳大利亚饮用水指南 (ADWG) 的健康和美学指南值的情况进行了全国评估。测试了饮用水质量基本水平的四个定义，以量化 2018-2019 年每个地方辖区的区域和偏远地区的服务差距。据报道，在 99 个地点的人口 < 1000 人中，至少有 25,245 人获得了不符合基于健康的指导值的供水服务。包括较大的城镇和供水系统，估计服务缺口在超过 115 个地点上升到至少 194,572 人。考虑到健康参数和 ADWG 对“良好”审美特征的定义，报告的服务差距进一步扩大到 408 个地点的至少 627,736 人。有记录的健康超标的所有地点中有 40% 是偏远的土著社区。监测和报告差距表明，不遵守 ADWG 指导值的实际发生率可能远高于我们的估计。我们的结果量化了可持续发展目标具体目标 6.1 和 ADWG 在水质结果评估方面的差异，显示了首府城市与澳大利亚其他地区的服务水平之间的差异，并强调了基于地点的解决方案的必要性。