NEWS RELEASE Drinking Water Inspectorate

DWI SE/I /04

Portsmouth's water quality above national average

The Drinking Water Inspectorate, (DWI) launched its annual report today, revealing that the standard of tap water in England and Wales has broken its own record for quality.

The Inspectorate's 14th annual report shows that nationally 99.88% of nearly 3 million tests carried out in 2003 met all the national and EU standards, continuing the year-on-year improvements since the Inspectorate was formed in 1990. In 2003, the number of tests failing to meet the drinking water standards was 3,418, compared to just over 25,000 ten years ago.

Portsmouth Water Plc, carried out a total of 23,369 tests, of which 99.9% met the stringent drinking water standards.

The DWI Inspector for Portsmouth Water, Jane Allen, commented:

“Portsmouth Water supplies over 655,000 consumers in Hampshire, West Sussex and Portsmouth with high quality drinking water, which is reflected in the excellent results for 2003. Once again, the company's compliance rate is above the national average.

‘Water is vital to health and consumers can feel confident that appropriate testing and monitoring is taking place on their behalf. I am delighted with the high quality of drinking water in the region, but it is important that we remain committed to improving and maintaining the standards for future generations”

The Chief Inspector of Drinking Water, Professor Jeni Colbourne said;
“I am pleased with the results, but consumer expectations are higher than ever and more needs to be done to maintain consumers' confidence in their tap water.
‘This is the last year of reporting against drinking water standards set in 1989. The new Water Supply (Water Quality) Regulations 2000*, with new EU and national standards, came into force fully on 1st January 2004. The industry has already taken action on potential problems to ensure immediate compliance with the new standards. The benefits of this action can be seen with the publication of results against the new standards for the third year running. I understand that we are ahead of the rest of Europe in making such information available.'

“Looking to the future, we have identified with the industry the areas where further effort is going to be needed to improve drinking water quality between 2005 and 2010.”

* Water Supply (Water Quality) Regulations 2001 in Wales