Drinking Water Quality Regulator (DWQR) have published the 2023 Annual Reports for Public Water Supplies.
In 2023, Scottish Water carried out a total of 272,017 regulatory tests (with numerical standards) on Scotland’s drinking water and many more for operational reasons such as following a burst main.
Of the 113,454 tests taken in 2023 to represent water at consumers’ taps, 99.88% complied with the standards. A further 62,253 tests were carried out on water supplied from treatment works and all but 30 of these tests met the required standards, which is a slight deterioration on the previous year’s performance. 96,310 tests were also taken from service reservoirs (SR), where treated water is stored. Compliance here was also poorer than in the last few years, due to an increase in detections of coliform bacteria.
Following several serious incidents and the rise in coliform detections, DWQR issued a Scotland- wide enforcement notice to Scottish Water, requiring the company to improve its performance in this respect so that all storage points will be inspected and maintained on a regular basis.
Water quality standards change over time, and 2023 saw the introduction of a number of new parameters as a result of Scotland’s alignment with the recast European Drinking Water Directive – the only UK nation to do so to date.
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.
