A PRIVATE water scheme on Tory Island was one of fourteen supplies across the country that were found to be contaminated by E.coli last year.
That’s according to a new report released by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) which found the water supplies had not been properly disinfected.
A private water scheme in Townawilly, in the south of the county, also failed to meet standards in 2022 because of the presence of Trihalomethanes (THMs) which are chemicals that can be found in water treated by chlorine and have been described by the HSE as ‘possibly carcinogenic’.
The EPA found that 84 per cent of registered private water supplies across the country were monitored last year.
Drinking water is provided to approximately 200,000 people across rural communities in Ireland, by over 380 group water schemes.
In addition, many rural commercial and public activities such as schools, creches, nursing homes, pubs and restaurants have their own drinking water wells.
There are 1,700 small private supplies registered with local authorities, but the total number of small private supplies remains unknown, as many suppliers haven’t registered their supply.
Commenting on the findings of the report, Dr Tom Ryan, Director of the EPA’s Office of Environmental Enforcement said:
“It is a local public health concern that private drinking water quality hasn’t improved in recent years despite the availability of public funding to support upgrades to water supplies. In addition, as there is no legal requirement to register private drinking water supplies, it is not possible to quantify the full extent of the risk to public health. The registration of private supplies needs to become a legally enforceable obligation on the supplier.”
A review of the rural water sector was completed in January 2023 on behalf of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage.
The review identified several significant issues that need to be addressed to improve drinking water compliance and reduce public health risk in private water supplies.
The key issues identified by the review was the need for all private water supplies to be registered with the local authority, that access to funding for water quality improvements varies greatly across local authorities resulting in available funding not being used and that measures are needed to improve management at underperforming private group schemes.
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