THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE whose drinking water is provided by ‘at-risk’ public supplies increased by 100,000 in 2022, according to a new report.

The Environment Protection Agency (EPA) has published its annual report on drinking water quality.

Overall, the quality of drinking water from public supplies is very high, with 99.96% of samples taken last year falling within bacterial and chemical limits.

However, the EPA identified multiple areas of concern where Uisce Éireann needs to act, including the elimination of lead from drinking water networks, ensuring that water treatment plants are operated correctly, and ensuring that water is free of bacteria.

The EPA keeps a Remedial Action List that identifies ‘at-risk’ supplies that should be improved to protect public health.

The number of people at the end of last year receiving public water supplies on the list jumped to nearly 481,000, up from 374,000 at the end of 2021.

The increase comes despite the construction of a new plant at Lee Road in Cork city and its removal from the list.

Additions to the list in 2022 include locations in Cork, Donegal, Galway, Kerry, Kildare, Limerick, Longford, Tipperary, Waterford and Wexford.

Meanwhile, the number of people affected by persistent trihalomethane doubled last year to 235,000.

The EPA described the rise as being of “particular concern” and warned that Uisce Éireann must implement improvements at supply sources to minimise exposure, including at major supplies like Limerick city and the Barrow in Kildare.

The agency found a “strong clustering” of protozoan – a type of one-celled organism – issues in the south-west of the country, attributing it to “the nature and higher number of supplies in this part of the country along with the much higher intensity of farming practices in the south-west”.

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Boil water notices improved slightly compared to 2021, with 182,000 people affected last year. One-third of boil water notices were in place for more than 30 days.

The EPA said the risk of boil water notices on some supplies will persist until Uisce Éireann takes proactive measures to address the causes and improve the resilience of the supplies.

EPA Director Dr Tom Ryan said that the public “can be confident that the drinking water supplied to their homes is safe to drink” but that the agency’s inspection and monitoring programme “continues to identify drinking water plants that are at risk and require improvements and upgrades”.

He said Uisce Éireann needs to prioritise investment in plants dealing with at-risk supplies “to improve the resilience of drinking supplies” and “to provide a safe and secure supply into the future”.

On lead piping, the EPA warned that Uisce Éireann will not meet its commitment to remove all public lead pipwork by 2026 if it continues at its current replacement rate. 

EPA Programme Manager Noel Byrne said that lead in drinking water is a “cumulative risk to human health”.

“Progress to remove lead from our drinking water supply networks, public buildings and affected homes is far too slow,” Byrne said.

He said the EPA welcomed the expansion of the lead remediation grant scheme to ease the financial burden on homeowners to replace lead piping but that “leadership is required at national level to address lead in public supplies”.

“Uisce Éireann must accelerate the rollout of their lead mitigation plan and Government departments must outline their plan for lead replacement in public buildings as part of the National Lead Strategy,” he said.

Responding to the EPA report, Uisce Éireann’s Head of Asset Operations Tom Cuddy said in a statement: “Public health is our top priority and we will continue to invest in our infrastructure and implement operational improvement measures to deliver world class drinking water supplies for all our customers.”

“Through initiatives such as our national disinfection programme, the rollout of the Drinking Water Safety Plan approach, and our enhanced testing and monitoring of treatment plants, we have made enormous strides in ensuring more secure and resilient supplies,” Cuddy said. 

“We recognise that challenges remain in addressing all the issues associated with our ageing water infrastructure.

He said it will take “a number of years and sustained high levels of investment” to address the issues but that “we are confident that our ambitious capital investment programme will enable us to transform Ireland’s water services and ensure a safe, sustainable, secure and reliable drinking water supply for everyone now and into the future”.