Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
recommendations of the WHO Guidelines for drinking water quality. In
terms of actual treatment of water, water companies are required to have
adequate water treatment systems in place, which they must use to treat
and subsequently disinfect all raw water before supplying. The minimum
requirement is that the turbidity of water must be <1 NTU2 prior to disin-
fection. Methods for disinfection itself are not set out by law, but companies
are required to advise the DWI of their disinfection methods and proce-
dures.
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Under UK regulations, water companies also have a duty to collect
samples at different stages to ensure treatment has been carried out correctly
and has been effective. Sample points include the treatment works and the
consumers' taps. Water companies must supply full details of their monitor-
ing to the DWI, which then must carry out independent checks on these
samples to ensure quality is high enough and pathogens are not present.
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Water undertakers or companies who fail to treat or disinfect their water
or that fail to up-keep their treatment facilities sufficiently in the UK will be
considered as having committed a criminal offense, and enforcement action,
such as fining those responsible, is likely to be taken. Section 70 of the Water
Industry Act of 1991 (as amended) also made it a criminal offense for any
water company to supply water that may be deemed unfit for human con-
sumption under inspection. One recent UK example saw Northumbrian
Water Ltd paying out over £22,000 in fines and costs in September 2012
after being found guilty of supplying customers with discolored water that
had not been sufficiently treated.
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Some recent developments are likely to add to, or potentially alter, exist-
ing regulation and legislation of the UK water industry. The draft Water Bill
was published on the 10th of July, 2012 and outlines that, despite the £98
billion investments in water since privatization, problems with pollution still
exist. The bill sets out the intention for further structural reform of the water
industry in the future. At the time of writing, the bill is currently undergo-
ing pre-legislative scrutiny but is expected to achieve Royal Assent during
the 2013-2014 period. When this is achieved, the Act will be likely to have
an impact on the water industry across the UK. Furthermore, a statement
of obligations released by Defra in October 2012 focused specifically on
organisms within the water supply. The statement indicates the Water Sup-
ply Regulations (2000) require that water must not contain any potentially
dangerous substance to human health and that undertakers must assess any
risk of raw water to ensure their disinfection process is sufficiently robust to
remove all pathogenic organisms. Furthermore, the statement indicates that
the health standards of the 1998 EC Drinking Water Directive have already
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