Drinking Water Quality Regulator (DWQR) have published the 2022 Annual Reports for Public Water Supplies.
In 2022, Scottish Water carried out a total of 297,284 regulatory tests on Scotland’s drinking water with
numerical standards and many more for operational reasons such as following a burst main. Of the 139,971 tests taken to represent water at consumers taps, 99.92% complied with the standards. In 2022 Scottish Water carried out sufficient water sampling as required by the regulations and the data shows a continued high level of compliance with standards. A further 60,671 tests were carried out on water supplied from treatment works and all but 25 of these tests met the required standards which is similar to the previous year’s performance. 96,642 tests were also taken from service reservoirs (SR), where treated water is stored. Compliance here was similar to 2021’s performance.
Of particular note during 2022 was the detection of Coliform bacteria at two of Scottish Water’s service
reservoirs Darvel SR and Kerse SR which required customers to boil their water as a precaution whilst investigations took place. Our assessment showed significant failings in Scottish Water’s maintenance of these assets. Further investigation into the approach to maintenance and inspection of service reservoirs has shown a backlog of inspection and repair. The DWQR are currently progressing enforcement action to ensure a robust programme of work is implemented to address this in the fastest possible time.
The Water Industry (Scotland) Act 2002 requires DWQR to publish an annual report describing the Regulator’s activities during the preceding year. This report summarises data on water quality in public and private supplies across Scotland, as well as covering water quality events and incidents, consumer contacts to Scottish Water and DWQR activities throughout the year.
Also published are separate documents detailing water quality performance and giving a summary of the water quality incidents that occurred in 2022. The Private Water Supplies Annual Report will be published in September 2022.
All previous Annual Reports can also be found on the website.
