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Drinking Water In County Sligo

The quality of drinking water in Ireland is governed by the EC (Drinking Water) (No. 2) Regulations, 2007. Communities (Drinking Water) (Number 2) Regulations 2007 Download - 179 kbs

Application Of The Regulations

These Regulations apply to all Public Water Supplies, all Private and Part Private Group Water Schemes, and all Private Water supplies with the exception of the following:

Individual supplies producing less than 10 cubic metres a day on average or serving fewer than 50 persons provided that those supplies are not used in a commercial or public activity, i.e., hotel, B & B, commercial outlet, public amenity, dairy farm, etc.

Duty Of The Water Supplier

There is a duty on all water suppliers to ensure that their water is wholesome and clean and that it meets with the requirements of the Regulations.

Supervisory Authority

Each Sanitary Authority (County Council) is the supervisory authority for all drinking water supplies in its functional area, other than its own Public Water Supplies. The Environmental Protection Agency is the Supervisory Authority for all Public Water Supplies.

Quality Standards

Drinking water must be wholesome and clean, this means it must meet the relevant water quality standards set out by the Regulations. In total, there are two microbiological, 26 chemical and 20 indicator standards that must be adhered to. To ensure that these standards are met each water supply must be monitored in accordance with the Regulations.

Monitoring Of Drinking Water

Minimum monitoring frequencies for drinking water depend on the size if the supply, i.e. the volume of water distributed per day. Sligo County Council is responsible of monitoring all public water supplies. It is the duty of all other water suppliers to monitor their supplies in accordance with the requirements of the regulations.

Types Of Drinking Water Supply In Ireland

Though the regulations specify two types of supply (“Public” and “Private”), in practice there are a number of different categories of water supply in Ireland. These categories are listed below:

(A) Public Water Supplies (Pws)

These are sanitary authority operated schemes (though these may be run privately by a private contractor on behalf of the Sanitary Authority). These schemes supply water to the majority of households in County Sligo.

The following is a list of each of the Public Water Supplies in County Sligo.

  • Lough Gill (Foxes Den) PWS 
  • Lough Gill (Cairns Hill) PWS 
  • Kilsellagh PWS 
  • Lough Talt PWS 
  • Killaraght PWS 
  • Riverstown PWS 
  • Lough Easkey PWS 
  • South Sligo PWS
  • North Sligo PWS
     

(B) Group Water Schemes (GWS)

A Group Water Supply Scheme involves the piping of water from a single source by two or more householders to their homes, farms and other premises. All such schemes would be registered with Sligo County Council. These schemes are privately owned and operated independent of the County Council. They usually serve rural areas. They are divided into two types, Private Group Water Schemes and Public Group Water Schemes.

‘Private’ Group Water Schemes (PrGWS)

These schemes are fully private, where the owners of the scheme (usually representatives of the local community) source and distribute their own water.  This type of scheme is operated independent of the County Council.

‘Public’ Group Water Schemes (PubGWS)

These schemes are part-private, where the drinking water is provided by the Sanitary Authority but the responsibility for distribution of the water rests with the Group Scheme. These Schemes tend to be provided off large Public Water Supplies.

(C) Small Private Water Supplies (SPS)

This is a group of different types of supply, either supplies serving greater than 50 persons or producing greater than 10m3 water per day which has not been formally set up as a group water scheme, or they may be supplies which serve less than 50 persons or produce less than 10m3 water per day and supply water as part of a public or commercial activity.

(D) Unregulated Supplies (Exempted Supplies)

Exempted supplies are supplies that are provided from either an individual supply providing less than 10m3 a day on average or serving fewer than 50 persons and do not have a public or commercial activity associated with them. Sligo County Council have produced an information leaflet with advice of consumers on Unregulated Supplies, For further information goto our Unregulated Supplies section

Registration Of Water Supplies

If your water supply can be described as a group water scheme or a small private supply,  you are obliged to register your scheme with Sligo County Council, download the Water Supply Scheme Registration Form - 8 kbs

Visit our section On Lead In Drinking Water for more information on lead and drinking water

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