Drinking water better in England and Wales

Northern Ireland’s drinking water is not up to the quality coming through the taps in England and Wales, a new report said today.

Although it’s getting better after the introduction of more stringent measures, there is still room for improvement, according to a UK department of the environment survey.

The Drinking Water Inspectorate’s 2004 report found that compliance at customer’s taps in the North was 98.65%, compared with 99.2% for Wales and 99.94% for England, where more money has been spent on water treatment and supply infrastructure programmes.

Last year, 1,519 samples were taken from water treatment works, service reservoirs and customers’ taps and then tested against new rigorous standards that came into effect in January 2004.

Some samples failed to meet regulation levels of trihalomethanes, aluminium, lead and iron, but none contained alarming levels of cryptospoidium, the parasitic organism that led to dozens of people being violently ill in north Down and Lisburn in 2001.

Environment minister Jeff Rooker said: “Ensuring the safety and good quality of drinking water is a never-ending task of constant vigilance. While the report finds the overall quality of our drinking water good, there can be no room for complacency.”

He said he was looking forward to the improvements already being undertaken in order to upgrade the North’s water-treatment works and water mains distribution system.