Desmond J. O'Malley
Question:38 Mr. O'Malley asked the Minister for the Environment his views on the deteriorating quality of Ireland's drinking water; and the action, if any, he intends to take to tackle and reverse this situation. [21123/96]
Written Answers. - Drinking Water Quality.
Primary responsibility for upholding the quality standards prescribed in the European Communities (Quality of Water Intended for Human Consumption) Regulations, 1988, rests with sanitary authorities, under the general supervision of the Environmental Protection Agency. The agency published an annual report on the results of sanitary authority monitoring required under these regulations.
The most recent report, which relates to the year 1994 and was published in June of this year, indicates that public drinking water supplies continue to be of satisfactory quality overall, with some fluctuations in quality occurring either because of natural or seasonal variations or as a result of one-off contamination incidents. The report does, however, highight continued difficulties with the more vulnerable private supplies.
Apart from coliforms, compliance levels in respect of strictly health-related parameters were again very satisfactory, at or above 99 per cent in 1994. In the case of coliforms, the overall compliance level in respect of 1993, at 87.2 per cent, was maintained against a background of increased monitoring of more vulnerable private supplies.
In response to the findings of the Environmental Protection Agency report, the Minister has requested sanitary authorities first to review their monitoring regimes and current treatment works practices; second, to take a more proactive approach to improving the compliance of privately-sourced group and individual supplies; and third to focus special attention on public water supplies which are experiencing consistent breaches of parameters.
In order to meet both quality and quantity requirements throughout the country, funding of some £55 million will be provided to sanitary authorities in 1996 for the development and upgrading of public water supplies. In the case of group schemes, funding of £6 million will be provided this year for connection to the public network or, where this is not feasible, for the provision of treatment facilities.
In addition, my Department will continue to support the development of the integrated training programme for personnel involved in the treatment and supply of drinking water which is being promoted by the Sanitary Services National Training Group.