In 2023, over 99.7 per cent of public water supplies comply with bacterial and chemical limits, which means our public water is safe to drink.
However, many supplies still lack robust treatment measures to guarantee their long-term resilience and safety. The EPA's Remedial Action List (RAL) identifies "at-risk" supplies that require improvements to safeguard public health. In 2023 there has been a further increase in the number of people served by supplies on the RAL (up to 561,000 – from 481,000). While it is positive to note that ten supplies were removed from the RAL following improvement works the EPA - through enforcement and assessment activities - have identified a further nine “at-risk” supplies that were added, primarily for THM and Cryptosporidium exceedances.
Good progress has been made in other areas such as disinfection, progression of the Drinking Water Safety Plan approach and making the lead remediation grant easier for the public to access.
One in twenty supplies failed to meet the Trihalomethane (THM) standard in 2023 and supplies on the RAL for THM’s are impacting almost 300,000 people. Greater effort is needed by Uisce Éireann to minimise exposure to THM’s.
Lead in our drinking water is a cumulative risk to human health and must be removed from our drinking supply network. Despite Ireland having a National Lead Strategy in place since 2015 progress to date has been far too slow. Uisce Éireann must accelerate the rollout of their lead mitigation plan to deal with the public supply network; the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and Department of Health must outline their plans for lead replacement in public buildings and householders with lead pipes in their homes should avail of the enhanced lead remediation grant scheme to protect their health.
In 2023, boil water notices impacted 254,000 people. Half of boil water notices were in place for more than 30 days, nearly double the number from 2022. This recent trend of significantly more long-term boil water notices needs to be reversed by Uisce Éireann and requires proactive measures to address the underlying causes and improve the resilience of these supplies.
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