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The quality control of UV drinking water disinfection has made an enormous progress in the last decade. The better understanding of the process and the higher quality assurance of the UV disinfection plants has increased the acceptance of UV drinking water disinfection. Three UV water disinfection standards were internationally developed by the USEPA, the German Association for Gas and Water and the Austrian Standards Institute. The quality assurance of safe UV water disinfection is based on 3 main prerequisites: the knowledge of the UV resistance of health related microorganisms transmittable by water, to set a sufficient high UV fluence, the careful evaluation of commercial UV plants and the control of the UV irradiation process during practical application by means of defined alarm points and a calibrated UV sensor, which allows checks against official specifications. Here we describe the basic principles of the validation of UV drinking water systems and point out the specific differences between the three international UV disinfection standards with regard to validation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]