The control of the drinking water quality became itself an action of public health from 70's, when the Norm 52 BSB 77, through of Ministry of Health, stated the norm of drinkability of water supply in all country. However, the achievement of a program of drinking water surveillance alone occurred from the creation of the National System of Environmental Health Surveillance in 1999. This paper approach the challenges put on itself by drinking water surveillance as proposals, not just by rationalizing of the Government, but incorporating the perspective of surveillance in health: the promotion and prevention of health as set of measures adopted by the Brazilian Health System (SUS) and that it point of following lines of direction: the generation of data, analysis and dissemination of the information; the decentralization; intersectoriality; and participation of the society. To carry through such objective, the paper is frameworked in order to describe from a historical perspective, the process of normatization and regulation of the drinking water quality in Brazil; approaching the main challenges and perspectives of the drinking water quality surveillance on sense to seek way for intersectorial and decentralized actions, opened to participatory management and the social control.
Drinking water; Health surveillance; Social control
