Half a million people drink from ‘at-risk’ public water supplies – EPA
Over half a million people in Ireland are drinking from “at-risk” public water supplies while the number of communities under long-term boil water notices has doubled in just a year.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has also criticised progress to remove lead from our supply networks to protect public health as being “far too slow”.
Its latest report shows there were more than 250,000 people under long-term boil notices.
The EPA said the number of people served by “at-risk” public water supplies rose to 561,000, up from 481,000 just a year prior. This is mostly due to the detection of persistent Trihalomethanes (THMs) and cryptosporidium.
One in 20 supplies failed to meet the standard for THMs, which are chemicals found in water treated with chlorine as a disinfectant.
While the HSE has said that there is “insufficient evidence” to indicate that THMs cause cancer in people, there is scientific evidence that some of the individual THM chemicals can cause health effects ranging from dizziness and fatigue to chest pain and liver damage.
The HSE also said the health risks from the likes of THMs are much less than the risks of consuming water that has not been disinfected.
In January, the European Court of Justice ruled that Ireland had failed to adhere to its obligations over the levels of THMs in 21 public drinking water supplies. The EPA said five of these are still on its list of requiring remedial works.
The EPA said “greater effort” is needed by Uisce Éireann to implement improvements at supplies to minimise exposure to THMs, including at major supplies such as in Limerick City and Kilkenny City.
“Our public water quality remains very high, which means that the public can remain confident that drinking water supplied to their homes is safe to drink,” EPA director Tom Ryan said.
“However, the resilience of drinking water supplies isn’t robust enough as evidenced by more ‘at-risk’ supplies being identified by the EPA, and an almost doubling of long-term boil water notices in 2023.”
The boil water notices were mainly focused on the southern half of the country, with Cork seeing notices issued in areas such as Fermoy, Glanmire, Macroom, Bandon, Innishannon, and Newmarket.
The number of boil water notices in place for more than 31 days stood at 46 in 2023, a sharp increase on recent years and up from 25 in 2022.
The EPA said 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”.
On the issue of lead in the water, the EPA said the Department of Housing has not yet published a report on progress with a national strategy on this, which means that the number and location of public buildings affected, the number of people exposed, and the plans to remove lead are still not known.
It said: “The slow progress by Uisce Éireann in the removal of lead connections in the public network continues.
In 2023, Uisce Éireann replaced over 9,500 lead connections (over 10,000 in 2022), bringing the total number of replacements to approx. 61,000 out of approximately 180,000.
At this rate, Uisce Éireann is highly unlikely to meet its commitment to remove all public-side lead pipework by 2026.
The EPA called for leadership at a national level from the Government and an acceleration from Uisce Éireann in tackling the issue of lead in drinking water.
In a statement, Uisce Éireann said that the EPA report shows that 99.7% of Ireland’s drinking water is fully compliant with standards and it is continuing to make progress with addressing “known risks” to water supplies with an “ambitious capital investment programme” to transform the country’s water services.
Its head of water operations Margaret Attridge said it recognises that “challenges remain” and that sustained high levels of investment will be needed to address legacy issues.
