One in 20 private water supplies in Ireland failed to meet standards for E.coli in 2021, while there has been no improvements in recent years with local authorities failing to monitor schemes adequately, according to an Environmental Protection Agency report issued on Friday.
Meeting E.coli standards is a basic requirement in the provision of safe drinking water. In 2021, one in 20 private supplies were found to have E.coli contamination, indicating the water supply was not properly disinfected to eliminate the bacterium, the report says.
The failure of these disinfection systems put the health of approximately 6,000 people that use these drinking water supplies throughout the country at risk, it notes.
In addition, 21 private group schemes (7 per cent) failed to meet the standard for trihalomethanes (THMs), including five schemes the European Commission has identified as being of particular concern. THMs are a byproduct of the treatment process and are formed where there is an excess of organic matter in the water source.
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Local authorities are not monitoring more than a quarter of small private supplies for E.coli, it adds, with more than 60 per cent of Government funding available to deal with water quality failures going unused by suppliers.
Drinking water is provided by more than 380 group water schemes to approximately 200,000 people across rural communities in Ireland.
Additionally, more than 1,700 small private supplies (including hotels, pubs and restaurants, creches, nursing homes and national schools) provide water to approximately 60,000 staff, customers and service users on a daily basis.
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Director of the EPA’s office of environmental enforcement Dr Tom Ryan said: “Compliance with drinking water standards in private supplies for E.coli and THMs hasn’t improved in recent years. It is essential that works to improve water quality are carried out as soon as possible to eliminate serious risks to people’s health.”
Private water suppliers are obliged to make sure their drinking water is clean and wholesome for consumers, he said. “Local authorities must investigate supplies that fail to meet drinking water quality standards and, where necessary, follow up with enforcement action to protect public health.”
Funding for improvements is available to group water schemes and household well owners for improvements to their supplies through the Multi-Annual Rural Water Programme. During the 2019-2021, period more than 60 per cent (€36 million) of funding available for infrastructural improvements was not availed of.
“Water quality in private supplies consistently lags behind public water quality,” said Noel Byrne, programme manager of the EPA’s office of environmental enforcement. “It is disappointing to see that €36 million of funding was not used by suppliers to address infrastructural needs at problematic private supplies,” he said.
The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage needs to complete its review of rural drinking water services, with the purpose of providing direction and support to water suppliers and to eliminate public health risks, he said.
During 2021, more than a quarter of small private supplies serving food businesses, nursing homes, creches and B&Bs were not monitored. Although there are 1,700 small private supplies registered with local authorities, there may be many more that are unregistered, the EPA said.
If a supply is not registered and has not been monitored, there is no information on the quality of the drinking water provided to consumers. “Water suppliers in conjunction with local authorities must ensure that private supplies are registered, and that monitoring is undertaken in line with the regulations,” the report says.
The report is available at epa.ie.
