The history of drinking water hygiene dates back several thousand years, but its importance for the modern world became apparent, at the latest, with the cholera epidemics of the late 19th century. While the medical and technological capabilities of that time (for example, in London in 1854 or in Hamburg in 1892) seem trivial today, the measures taken to further improve drinking water hygiene in Germany are significantly more complex.
For the coming year, another milestone—SHAPTH—is planned, which is intended to harmonize and thereby simplify communication among all participating companies and government agencies across national borders.
As the full form of the acronym suggests, SHAPTH stands for two things: on the one hand, theharmonization of interfaces fordata exchange, and on the other hand, a centralexchange platform designed to ensure compliance with the data structure.
Interface Harmonization
The interface harmonization is based on theXWasser standard, a nationwide, uniform data exchange standard for drinking water hygiene in XML format. Version 1.0 of this standard was published on July 8, 2026, and is intended to replace other existing but inconsistent and incompatible standards (Octoware, TEIS, LABDÜS, etc.). This version will be implemented in the production system starting November 1—two months before the planned rollout of SHAPTH.
The Exchange Platform
In the future, the exchange of drinking water hygiene data will take place via a new, centralized platform. This approach aims to ensure that data is standardized and provided and received in accordance with the established standard. Operators,testing laboratories, andstate authorities willtherefore no longerexchangedata among themselves—data that may be incorrectly formatted or in need of updating—but will instead access the SHAPTH platform directly via the interface. This also significantly simplifies data exchange with other federal states, as data no longer needs to be converted between state-specific standards—thus completely eliminating another source of error.
The Challenge
SHAPTH’s promises are ambitious, but accredited testing facilities (labs) in particular will also face a certain amount of work: For example, master data in the LIMS must be mapped to XWasser’s new data structure, and the LIMS itself must be enhanced with an interface to enable data exchange with the new SHAPTH platform.
The LIVO TechnologiesLABbase LIMS is equipped to handle these challenges and is already capable of communicating with the exchange platform. A defined workflow also makes it quite easy to convert master data into the XWasser format.
What You Need to Do Now as a Testing Facility
- Expand Your LIMS with the SHAPTH Interface
- Convert Master Data
- Stay stress-free!
We'd be happy to help you with that! Please feel freeto contact usfor more information.
