One-fifth of population at risk of ill health due to inadequate monitoring of private water supplies

More than 60 of these private supplies were found to be contaminated with human or animal waste at least once during 2018.

Poorly constructed wells and inadequate monitoring of private water supplies is putting the health of up to one-fifth of the population at risk, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has warned.

An EPA report on the quality of private water supplies found the quality of drinking water in private supplies, which are mostly sourced from wells, is poorer than that in publicly-sourced supplies, putting huge numbers at risk of consuming contaminated water.