The 4th World Water Congress featured an exciting technical programme bringing together the perspectives of research and practice, and covering all aspects of water and wastewater services within a context of sustainable catchment and basin management.  From this large and high-quality programme papers have been selected following peer review for publication in this journal. This issue contains papers selected from the sessions on water and health.

The selected papers cover work on the detection, monitoring, treatment or management of various pathogens and other contaminants that have health implications; these include viruses, bacteria, parasites, heavy metals, organic micropollutants, pharmaceutical and personal care products, and endocrine-disrupting chemicals.

These articles report some of the latest advances and best practice relating to environmental monitoring, water services management (including risk management) and water and wastewater treatment to minimize water-related health impacts.