Advances in Water Treatment and Enviromental Management

Chapter 4WATER SUPPLY QUALITY AND ITSREGULATION IN THE PRIVATISED UKWATER SERVICES plcsS B Tuckwell (Wessex Water Business Services Ltd, UK)1 ABSTRACTWater supplies in England and Wales have to comply with revised statutory quality andmonitoring requirements, incorporating the EC Drinking Water Directive values and nationalstandards. Despite up to 99.7% of samples meeting the standards, extensive programmesare required to improve supplies to try to achieve 100% compliance, particularly for watertreatment works to remove aluminium, iron and pesticide and for distribution systems foriron and related problems due to corrosion of mains. A more stringent standard for lead thanin the EC Directive will require extensive investigation of possible non-compliance due todomestic plumbing materials and may necessitate water treatment remedies. The £10 billionimprovement programme should remedy most of the problems by 1999 or sooner.2 STRUCTURE OF THE NEW INDUSTRYThe Water Act 1989 (HMSO 1989a) prepared the way for the privatisation of the ten regionalwater authorities in England and Wales which, since 1974, had been responsible for watersupply and sewerage services, resource planning, river water quality, pollution control,fisheries, land drainage, flood protection and alleviation, water recreation and conservation.Fig. 1: England and Wales showing the ten Water Services companies.©1991 Elsevier Science Publishers Ltd, EnglandWater Treatment—Proceedings of the 1st International Conference, pp. 31–4231