The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has warned that thousands of people could be drinking water from private supplies that are not closely monitored for contamination, which can cause severe damage to the public health.
This comes as thousands of Small Private Water Supplies are continuing to provide drinking water from wells, and other private sources to schools, crèches, hotels, nursing homes, sports clubs, campsites and other commercial and public premises across Ireland.
The EPA are calling on the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage to change the law so that private drinking water supplies must have registration with local authorities and are checked for contamination on a regular basis.
As it stands, there are only around 1,600 supplies registered with local authorities. This number is too low, according to the EPA, as this is a requirement if the supplies are to sampled and checked to ensure the water is drinkable.
The EPA feels there are more Small Private Water Supplies that have never been registered with local authorities, which they have said could mean that thousands of privately operated water supplies supplying the public are not being sampled or monitored in order to ensure the water is safe to consume.
Speaking to RTÉ Radio, the Programme Manager in the EPA's Office of Radiation Protection and Environmental Monitoring, Noel Byrne has said that Cork County Council "has been very pro-active in registering their supplies".
"They [Cork Co Co] have registered about 250 in the county of Cork, but if you look at the report, and a similar rural county such as Mayo, they have only 24 registered ... and that is a level of concern," Mr Byrne said.
Mr Byrne added that "people need to take drinking water quality seriously."
"One person getting sick from contaminated water is one too many, but even that could be a family or even a community". (All quotes according to RTÉ).
