Regulation and assessment
What is a private water supply?
A private water supply is a supply of water, which does not come from a licensed water supplier, such as Thames Water. Private supplies may come from a number of sources, including wells, boreholes, rivers and streams.
All private water supplies must be registered with the council. Failure to do so may result in a Section 85 Notice under the Water Industry Act 1991, with which failure to comply is an offence. As a supplier of private water, it is your responsibility to ensure the water is wholesome and does not pose a risk to human health.
These supplies are covered by The Private Water Supplies (England) Regulations 2016 and The Private Water Supplies (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2018.
These Regulations aim to ensure water from private supplies is wholesome, so people who use water from private supplies can do so without risk to their health. They also cover private distribution systems where water may be supplied to one property and then distributed on to other properties, e.g. caravan sites.
Our responsibilities
The guidance on private water supplies set out procedures we must follow if we consider a private water supply is unwholesome. This includes requirements to:
- Investigate the cause
- Inform the user(s) if the supply constitutes a potential danger to human health
- Give the user(s) advice to allow them to minimize any such potential danger
- Liaise with the Health Protection Agency to seek advice on whether there is potential danger to human health.
If a supply needs to be improved, we will liaise informally with supply owner/users to prevent potential dangers to human health. If an informal approach does not achieve this then there are other options open to us in the Regulations, including serving notices.
For large supplies and small domestic supplies, we are required to carry out a risk assessment of the supply every five years. The risk assessment will examine the source of the supply and the surrounding area to see if contamination is possible. It also involves checks of storage tanks, treatment systems and the pipes to ensure that any action necessary is taken to ensure the water supply is safe to drink.
We are also required to carry out sampling but the frequency and type of sampling is dependent on the outcome of the risk assessment and the size of the supply.
We are not required to carry out sampling of single domestic supplies. However, this can be done at the request of the owner or occupier.
What happens if there is a problem with the water?
Where sampling and testing shows there is a problem with the water supply an authorisation may be granted. This would allow the supply to be of a different standard to that set out in the regulations but only for a limited time whilst works are carried out to achieve compliance. However, this would only be allowed if the water posed no danger to human health. The authorisation will require action to be taken to comply with any necessary conditions.
Alternatively, if a private supply of water constitutes a potential danger to human health, we will serve a private supply notice. This notice will be served on the owner or occupier of the premises that the water supply serves or the owner or occupier of the source premises. The notice will usually require various steps to rectify the problem or to arrange an alternative supply. If no action is taken, we can carry out the works and recover the cost.