Building components in contact with drinking water

It is a requirement that building components in contact with drinking water is approved before being placed on the Danish market.

 In order for building components to be sold and placed on the market in Denmark, at least one of the following must be documented:

  • A GDV approval from Denmark 
  • An approval according to the German regulations
  • An ATA approval/The KIWA Water Mark from the Netherlands
  • A type approval in Sweden by either RISE and/or KIWA Sweden 

The documentation can be for the building component as a whole, or for the water-affected sub-components of which the construction product consists.

Check an approval

You can check whether a component has a valid approval/certificate on the website for the according country.

All valid GDV approvals that have been issued under the conditions of the GDV scheme are published on the Danish Authority of Social Services and Housing's list of approvals.

Link to site for valid danish GDV-approvals

Expired, lapsed or revoked GDV approvals do not appear in the approval list.

It is not legal to market and/or sell construction products in contact with drinking water under the following approval numbers.

Link to the list of invalid GDV-approvals

Link to site for Dutch ATA-approvals/The KIWA Water Mark

Link to site for Swedish type approvals by RISE

Link to site for Swedish type approvals by KIWA Sweden

The German scheme has undergone significant changes in recent years. Read more under the page "The German system"

Link to page for the German scheme

The GDV scheme

The approval scheme for construction products approved for drinking water (GDV) encompasses the health-related properties of the construction products, i.e., the leaching of potentially harmful substances into the drinking water.

The Danish Authority of Social Services and Housing is the responsible authority for the approval scheme and the issuance of GDV approvals.

Construction products covered by the scheme

The scheme applies to, for example, faucets, fixtures, and other construction products. Factory-made construction products are covered by the regulations if the following three conditions are met:

  1. The construction product is in contact with the cold drinking water.
  2. The construction product is placed from the entry point of the property (boundary) up to and including the tap.
  3. The construction product is part of the permanent drinking water installation.
 

Legislation

The requirement of approval is statet and regulated in the Executive Order.

The purpose of the regulation, is to ensure the quality of the drinking water.

Link to the Executive Order