Thousands of people warned of water contamination risk

The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) has released its latest report on water standards.

The Drinking Water Quality in Private Group Schemes and Small Private Supplies 2025 report states water quality in private water supplies is not as good as public water supplies. 

Among these private water supplies, there are schools, nursing homes, hotels, camping sites, sport clubs, and self-catering accommodation. 

There are 376 community run supplies (private group schemes) serving more than approximately 194,000 people across Ireland.

There are also 1,600 small private drinking water supplies registered. However, the total real number of those is unknown because it is not legally required to register them.

As a result, many unregistered small private supplies may be providing unsafe drinking water. 

The agency is calling on the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage to change the law. They say a stronger governance, oversight and management of private water supplies needs to be applied. 

EPA requires the Department to consider these measures as a priority, due to its slow implementation.

For this, it is crucial to “make registration a legal obligation for small private supplies”, said the EPA. 

Among the private group water schemes, 14 of 366 (3.8%) failed to meet the E. coli  standard. Seventeen private group schemes also failed the Trihalomethane (THM) standard.

As for small private supplies, 67 of 1,623 (4.5%) failed the E. coli compliance.  

This translates to 19,362 people supplied by Private Group Schemes that failed the standard for trihalomethanes, and almost 2,000 people receiving drinking water from Private Group Water Schemes that failed the E. Coli standard last year.