Drinking water from your own well or cistern in rural tourism: lab testing in RS

This article explains what the Rulebook on the health safety of water intended for human consumption requires from farm stays, guesthouses, restaurants and other tourism facilities in Republika Srpska that drink, cook and prepare food with water from their own well, cistern or spring.

In short

• The Rulebook covers all water meant for drinking, cooking, food preparation and other household needs, whatever its origin, including water from cisterns (Article 2).
• For tourism and catering facilities and food businesses that use their own water, the number of basic and periodic tests follows Annex 5, based on the number of equivalent inhabitants (Article 8, paragraph 3).
• One equivalent inhabitant (ES) is a use of 200 litres of water per day. For facilities up to 5,000 ES, Annex 5 lists 11 basic tests and 1 periodic test a year, 12 in total.
• Dug wells and cisterns count as "open sources" (Article 3), and cisterns must be disinfected continuously (Article 43, paragraph 1).

Who it applies to

Tourism and catering facilities and food production or trade businesses supplied from their own water sources: rural guesthouses and apartments, taverns, restaurants, small processors. The provision concerns registered tourism and catering facilities and food business operators; if you are not registered, ask the inspector how the duty applies to you. Connection to a public waterworks is not covered by Article 8(3), which concerns facilities with their own source; Article 6(2) governs sampling for waterworks.

What to do

1. Estimate your daily water use in season and divide by 200 to get the number of ES. Most small facilities are far below 5,000 ES.
2. Arrange sampling and analysis with a public health laboratory. The Rulebook requires laboratory analysis but does not name the laboratory: ask your municipality or the inspector which one is authorised.
3. The basic test covers microbiological indicators, including total coliforms, E. coli, enterococci and colony counts (Annex 2), plus physical and chemical indicators (Annex 4).
4. Samples must be representative of the water quality over the whole year (Article 13), so spread the tests out and do not test only before the season.
5. If you use a cistern, disinfect the water continuously (Article 43, paragraph 1).
6. Precaution: if a result exceeds the limit values (Annex 1), do not serve the water to guests until it is retested and the cause is removed. This is not a separate provision of the Rulebook, only a sensible safeguard.
7. Keep the test reports for inspection.

Deadlines and amounts

The Rulebook sets no price for the analysis and no separate deadline for delivering results. The frequency is the one in Annex 5. It gives no lower tier for small seasonal facilities, so before your first season ask the inspector how the duty applies to your facility.

Where to go

• Ministarstvo zdravlja i socijalne zaštite Republike Srpske (Ministry of Health and Social Protection), issuer of the Rulebook: vladars.rs/MZSZ
• Your municipality (Trebinje, Bileća, Gacko, Ljubinje, Nevesinje, Berkovići) or the competent sanitary inspector: ask them which laboratory is authorised and how to contact it.

Laws and sources

• Pravilnik o zdravstvenoj ispravnosti vode namijenjene za ljudsku potrošnju (Službeni glasnik RS no. 88/17, 93/23 and 96/24)
• Amendment, Službeni glasnik RS no. 96/24 of 8 November 2024 (new Annex 1 with limit values)