Nearly 100% of public water supplies meet “bacterial and chemical limits” and are safe to drink, according to a new report published by the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) today (Tuesday, August 1).
However, the EPA has also warned that many supplies lack robust treatment measures to guarantee their “long-term resilience and safety”.
Drinking water in Ireland is sourced from rivers, lakes, springs, and groundwater and according to the agency, must be treated to make it “clean and safe” to drink before it is supplied to consumers.
The agency said in its latest report that more than 99.7% of public water supplies meet compliance levels for microbiological and chemical standards for drinking water.
The EPA also identified that water supplies with pesticide detections had reduced from 31 to 17 supplies in 2022 which it described as “very positive”.
Launching its latest report today, Dr. Tom Ryan, EPA director said:” Our public water quality remains very high, which means that the public can be confident that the drinking water supplied to their homes is safe to drink.
“However, the EPA through our inspection and monitoring programme, continues to identify drinking water plants that are at risk and require improvements and upgrades.
“At the end of 2022, there were 481,000 people being served by at risk supplies on EPA’s Remedial Action List (RAL).”
Uisce Éireann (previously Irish Water), the national regulated water utility, is responsible for delivering drinking water to homes across the country.
EPA and Uisce Éireann
The latest EPA report highlights that Uisce Éireann is required to put an action plan with timelines in place to rectify the issues at a list of “at-risk” supplies identified by the EPA.
Boil water notices impacted 182,000 people last year — a slight improvement since 2021 – although one third of boil water notices were in place for more than 30 days
Uisce Éireann is also involved in nationwide programmes on “improving disinfection and reducing trihalomethanes (THMs), pesticides, and exposure to lead”.
In 2022, the agency issued 14 legally binding directions to Uisce Éireann where supplies needed improvements.
In the Drinking Water Quality in Public Supplies Report 2022, the EPA outlined 17 water supplies that had “failed to meet the pesticide standard” last year.
But the agency said this was a “welcome decrease” from the 31 supplies in 2021.
The EPA stated: “The herbicide MCPA continues to dominate. There are four supplies on the RAL for pesticides at the end of 2022, down from six in 2021.
“All supplies on the RAL for pesticide exceedances have Catchment Focus Groups in place, and it is positive that two supplies were removed from the RAL under this category in 2022.”
According to the agency the “primary strategic approach” to reducing the risk of pesticides by Uisce Éireann is through catchment management.
“The catchment focus group brings relevant stakeholders together to promote responsible pesticide use within those catchments – with the ultimate aim of resolving the issues at source before they reach the water supply,” the EPA stated.