Index of Contents:
- Introduction
- Coliform Bacteria
- Pesticides
- Lead
- Iron and Manganese
- Cryptosporidium
- Nitrite
- Drinking Water Quality Incidents
- Further Information
1. Introduction
The Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI) checks on behalf of the Government that water companies supply water that is safe to drink. This leaflet summarises the results of our checks on Bournemouth and West Hampshire Water Plc during 2001. You should read it alongside DWI’s How Good is the Drinking Water? leaflet, which gives more details on the standards and tests. This is available free of charge and on the DWI web site at www.dwi.gov.uk..
Bournemouth and West Hampshire Water continues to supply you with drinking water of a high quality. In 2001, 99.79% of more than 16,300 tests met the drinking water standards. This is below the overall figure for England and Wales of 99.86%. The tests are carried out on samples taken from water treatment works, service reservoirs and consumers’ taps.
None of the failures of the standards in 2001 were considered harmful to consumers’ health. Each failure was assessed and, where necessary, Bournemouth and West Hampshire Water has taken action to prevent further failures.
Although the 2001 results are good there are some matters which may concern you. These are detailed below including any steps taken by Bournemouth and West Hampshire Water to further improve its performance.
2. Coliform bacteria
Occasionally, coliform bacteria may be found in drinking water samples; these are not considered harmful to consumers’ health. If coliform bacteria are detected, Bournemouth and West Hampshire Water plc investigates immediately.
During 2001, low numbers of coliform bacteria were detected in the water leaving a small number of water treatment works and service reservoirs.
The standard at service reservoirs permits 5% of samples to contain coliform bacteria and, in 2001, none of the Company’s service reservoirs failed the standard.
Coliform bacteria were detected in 0.7% of the water samples taken from consumers’ taps. Many of these failures may have been due to the condition of the tap and not the water itself. The standard permits 5% of samples in a water supply zone to contain coliform bacteria. All zones met the standard.
3. Pesticides
Bournemouth and West Hampshire Water carried out more than 2,300 tests for individual pesticides during 2001 and all samples met the stringent standard.
4. Lead
Samples do occasionally fail the standard for lead, even where additional treatment has been installed to reduce the amount of lead picked up by water from pipe work.
If you are concerned about the possibility of lead in your drinking water, you should contact Bournemouth and West Hampshire Water to see whether there is a problem. A leaflet about lead in drinking water is available from DWI free of charge and can also be found on the DWI web site.
No samples taken by Bournemouth and West Hampshire Water failed the standard for lead during 2001.
5. Iron and manganese
These two parameters provide a good indication of the overall condition of the mains used to distribute drinking water throughout the area of supply. During 2001, six of the 297 samples taken for iron failed the standard. None of the 177 samples taken for manganese failed the standard. Currently, there is no need for the Company to undertake any refurbishment of its distribution system.
6. Cryptosporidium
Cryptosporidium is a tiny micro-organism that can sometimes cause a form of diarrhoea called cryptosporidiosis. There are a number of sources of Cryptosporidium other than drinking water. New Regulations require water companies to sample continuously and analyse daily for Cryptosporidium in the treated water at potentially vulnerable sites.
It is a criminal offence to exceed the new treatment standard for Cryptosporidium.
During 2001, Bournemouth and West Hampshire Water fulfilled its requirement to carry out continuous sampling and monitoring at five of its sites that were identified as being at significant risk from Cryptosporidium. The Company is also required to tell DWI of any failures to meet the treatment standard. Bournemouth and West Hampshire Water reported no failures during 2001.
In addition, as part of the new regulations, the Company completed programmes of work to reduce any potential risk from Cryptosporidium at two sites during 2001.
7. Nitrite
As a consequence of adopting chloramination of some supplies to improve chlorine taste problems in some areas, there has been an increase since 1998 in the number of zones failing the standard for nitrite. However, the number of failures in 2001 was about the same as in 2000. The failures did not make the water unsafe to drink.
8. Drinking Water Quality Incidents
No events notified during 2001 by Bournemouth and West Hampshire Water were considered to be incidents.
9. Further information
If you would like more information about drinking water quality the following leaflets are available free of charge from DWI and can also be found on the DWI web site:
• What do we do?
• How good is the drinking water?
• Problems with your drinking water
• Chlorine, smell and taste
• Discoloured water
• Lead in drinking water
• Private water supplies
• Water hardness
• Tap water, where does it come from and how is it made safe to drink?
• Using lead-free solder for drinking water fittings
• DWI reports on each water company[ Previous ] [ Contents ] [ Next ]
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Drinking Water Inspectorate,
Floor 2/A1, Ashdown House, 123 Victoria Street, London, SW1E 6DE
Telephone : 020 7944 5956 - Facsimile : 020 7944 5969
E-mail: dwi.enquiries@defra.gsi.gov.uk
Published 10 July 2002
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