ECHA has launched a new online tool for industry to notify its plans to update the EU Positive Lists of substances that are approved for use in materials that come into contact with drinking water.
By using the ECHA Industry Portal companies can indicate those substances that they wish to keep, add or remove from the European Positive Lists. The notifications under the Drinking Water Directive are prepared in the IUCLID format.
To help the notifiers prepare their notifications of intentions in IUCLID, ECHA has published:
- a manual on “How to prepare a Drinking Water Directive Notification of intention”;
- a guidance document dedicated to notifications of intention (DWD Guidance Volume IV); and
- a video tutorial on the generation of the notification of intention IUCLID dossier.
ECHA invites all impacted parties to familiarise themselves with the manual, guidance and tutorial before preparing their notifications.
After a notification of intention has been submitted, notifiers have 12 months to submit their application. From January 2027, notifiers can start submitting their applications to amend the European Positive Lists.
Background
EU’s Drinking Water Directive (DWD) aims to protect people and the environment from the harmful effects of contaminated drinking water and to improve access to drinking water. ECHA's mandate under the DWD covers the implementation of the framework for minimum hygiene requirements for materials that are in contact with drinking water.
DWD requires that starting substances, compositions or constituents used in manufacturing materials that come into contact with drinking water, from the water source to the tap, are listed in one of four European Positive Lists.
Additions, renewals and removals of starting substances, compositions or constituents in the European Positive Lists require an application to be submitted to ECHA. A mandatory step before application is the submission of a notification of economic operators’ and authorities’ intention to apply. The notification process is designed to encourage potential applicants to group their efforts by preparing a single application, inform stakeholders of which substances will be applied for, and help ECHA plan ahead and manage the application process more efficiently.