Press Release
02/2004

FURTHER IMPROVEMENTS IN TAP WATER QUALITY – WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

07 July 2004

The Drinking Water Inspectorate, the independent tap water watchdog, today announced figures showing that tap water quality in England & Wales has improved for another year running.

The Inspectorate’s 14th annual report, published today, reveals that 99.88% of 2.9 million tests carried out in 2003 met all the national and EU drinking water standards. The number of tests failing to meet standards was only 3,418 compared to more than 25,000 failures a decade ago.

The Chief Inspector of Drinking Water, Professor Jeni Colbourne said:

‘The overall health benefits from the 1989 regulatory regime are beyond doubt and this very good record of year on year improvement is reassuring for consumers.’

‘This improvement has only been brought about by major investment since 1990 by the industry. But consumer expectations are higher than ever and more needs to be done to maintain consumers confidence in their tap water. It is not acceptable that some consumers in some parts of the country continue to receive discoloured or bad tasting water. Nearly one fifth of old cast iron pipes have been renovated or relined but further work needs to be done. My Inspectors are busy working with water companies to make sure this happens as quickly as practicable.’

‘This is the last year of reporting against the standards set in 1989. The new Water Supply (Water Quality) Regulations 2000 , with new EU and national standards, came into force fully on 1st January 2004 . The industry has already taken action on potential problems to ensure immediate compliance with the new standards. The benefits of this action can be seen with the publication of results against the new standards for the third year running. I understand that we are ahead of the rest of Europe in making such information available.’

‘ Looking to the future, we have identified with the industry the areas where further effort is going to be needed to improve drinking water quality between 2005 and 2010.’

Notes for Editors

1. The Drinking Water Inspectorate was formed in 1990 to ensure that the privatised water companies in England and Wales provide safe and wholesome water and comply with the Regulations.
   
   
2. The Chief Inspector of Drinking Water reports annually to the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and to the First Secretary of the National Assembly for Wales. Professor Jeni Colbourne was appointed as the Chief Inspector in April 2003.
   
   
3. The European Commission requires each Member State to provide data on compliance with standards set in the EC Directive on the quality of water intended for human consumption every three years. Only three Member States – one of which is the UK – have published reports.
   
   
4. In 1989, the Water Supply (Water Quality) Regulations were introduced which reflect the quality standards given in the original EC Directive on the quality of water intended for human consumption (80/778/EEC). At the end of 2000, new Water Supply (Water Quality) Regulations were introduced in England and in Wales at the end of 2001. These implement the new 1998 EC Directive (EC 98/83) which in turn reflects the World Health Organisation guidelines on drinking water quality. These new Regulations came into force fully on 1 January 2004 and contain new and revised standards for a number of parameters, Therefore, this report is the last one to provide data on compliance against the original standards set in 1989.
   
   
5. Results of monitoring against the new and revised standards were first reported by DWI in 2001. This continued in 2002 and 2003. Early monitoring helped identify areas of potential problems and water companies have subsequently taken measures to meet the new and revised standards. This has proved successful in many areas.
   
   
6. Market research has shown that most consumers believe that tap water is safe and well-monitored. However, they are less happy about the aesthetic quality of water i.e. its taste, smell and appearance. Consumers also identified expenditure on ongoing maintenance of tap water quality as very important to them. “Customer acceptability” is a key driver for DWI in the current Periodic Review process.
   
   
7. The report ‘Drinking Water 2003’ can be found on the DWI’s website at www.dwi.gov.uk.

For further information please telephone:
General Enquiries: 020 7082 8024
Press Enquiries : 020 7082 8022

Drinking Water Inspectorate