Ireland's State of the Environment Report 2024

375 Chapter 14: Environment, Health and Wellbeing 2 Implemented by the European Union Drinking Water Regulations 2023 (S.I. No. 99/2023). 3 www.eea.europa.eu/publications/zero-pollution/health/water-pollution (accessed 16 July 2024). 4 gov – Domestic Lead Remediation Grant Scheme – Customer Leaflet (www.gov.ie/en/publication/7fe5d-domestic-lead- remediation-grant-scheme-customer-leaflet/) (accessed 20 September 2024). Safe and clean water and sanitation Drinking water. Drinking water can pose a risk to health if it is contaminated by pathogens or certain chemicals. The recast Drinking Water Directive 2 ((EU) 2020/2184) brings significant new requirements for water suppliers and regulators. These include implementing a risk-based approach (drinking water safety plans) across the whole drinking water supply chain and an updated list of more stringent existing (e.g. lead) and new standards (e.g. per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS)). Nationally, water comes from a public water supply operated by Uisce Éireann (82% of population), a private household supply such as a well (12% of population) or a private group water scheme (6% of the population). Compliance with the microbiological and chemical standards for public drinking water supplies remains high at greater than 99.7%, and this compares well with the EU-wide historical compliance rate of more than 99.5% for a range of chemical parameters. 3 Drinking water treatment in many supplies is still, however, not robust enough to ensure that all supplies will be resilient and safe into the future, with 57 public supplies identified by the EPA as requiring remedial action in its most recent update (EPA, 2024b). The quality of water from private supplies (including group schemes) is consistently lower than that from public supplies, with little indication that this disparity is improving. About 1 in 20 private supplies tested fail to meet Escherichia coli standards, compared with only 1 in 200 public water supplies. Concerningly, each year on average over one-quarter of small private supplies are not subject to any monitoring. Private wells are not regulated so information on their quality is not available. Ireland has one of the highest notification rates in Europe for certain notifiable pathogens, including Shiga toxin- producing E. coli (STEC) (also referred to as verocytotoxin- producing E. coli (VTEC)) (Topic Box 14.3). In addition to issues with microbial contamination, there are a number of issues related to chemical contamination. There has been an increase in the number of supplies listed on the EPA’s action list because they contain trihalomethanes (THMs). In January 2024, the European Court of Justice ruled that Ireland had failed to fully implement the Drinking Water Directive in relation to breaches of the limit for THMs in 30 drinking water supplies, 21 of which were Uisce Éireann public supplies (see Chapter 16 for further information). There are also issues with lead, with limited action taken to replace lead pipework under the National Lead Strategy. This is particularly urgent and requires leadership at a national level given the cumulative risk to health posed by exposure to lead in drinking water supplies. The recast Drinking Water Directive includes requirements to halve the level of lead that is permitted in drinking water (from 10 µg/l to 5 µg/l) by January 2036. Compliance with this limit will most likely not be achieved without the replacement of all lead connections. The Lead Remediation Grant Scheme 4 provides 100% of costs up to €5,000 for householders to replace lead drinking water pipes within the boundaries of their property.