Over 100 drinking water supplies in Ireland are in need of remedial works to avoid threat of water restrictions, according to the Irish Environment Protection Agency.
The EPA’s Drinking Water Report for 2015, released today, indicates that the majority of Ireland’s 962 drinking water supplies are safe and comply with microbiological and chemical standards.
However, the EPA has identified 108 “at risk” supplies in the latest Remedial Action List, also released today, where improvement works are necessary to ensure they are safe and secure. The supplies serve 830,000 consumers, with 37 of them lacking adequate treatment to prevent Cryptosporidium entering drinking water.
E.coli was detected at least once in 7 supplies, compared to 8 supplies in 2014, while trihalomethanes limits were exceeded in 59 supplies (no change from 2014).
Monitoring of Ireland’s public drinking water in 2015 found that:
- 99.9% of samples comply with the microbiological standards
- 99.4% of samples comply with the chemical standards
- 35 Boil Water Notices were in place during 2015 for part or all of the year, affecting nearly 40,000 people.
Commenting following the release of the report and the latest Remedial Action List, Gerard O’Leary, Director of the EPA’s Office of Environmental Enforcement said,
“So far this year, 86,000 people have had to boil their water to make it safe. This is more than twice as many as last year. Without investment to address the deficiencies in the supplies on the EPA’s Remedial Action List, this type of water restriction will continue to occur.”
“Irish Water needs to accelerate the investment in remedial works”
The EPA has identified the following key priorities that need to be addressed:
- Eliminate long-term Boil Water Notices.
- Implement action programmes for all “at risk” supplies, particularly treatment systems to address trihalomethanes.
- Remove lead from public buildings and homes.
Darragh Page, Senior Inspector of the EPA’s Office of Environmental Enforcement said,
“Irish Water needs to accelerate the investment in remedial works at supplies listed on the EPA’s Remedial Action List so that the threat of long-term water restrictions is eliminated. Where avoidable delays have been caused to these planned upgrade works, the EPA has and will continue to take enforcement action.”
Click here to download the EPA Drinking Water Report for Public Water Supplies 2015
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