North Surrey Water Ltd supplies drinking water to about 472,000 people living in parts of Surrey and Middlesex. Nearly all of the Company's water supplies come from the River Thames with the remainder drawn from boreholes and wells. The Company has five treatment works and distributes water through 2,459 km of pipes and 23 service reservoirs.
Each year water companies are inspected. The 1995 inspection found that the Company's arrangements for sampling and reporting were generally very good and that treatment processes and progress with improvement programmes were generally satisfactory. Arrangements for analysis were found to be generally satisfactory although some areas on data handling and reporting required improvement. Five recommendations were made to the Company.
The quality of the water supplied by the Company in 1995 has been generally very good. 98.8% of the 24,661 tests performed by the Company met the standards - the tests were largely made on samples taken from consumers' taps. Of the 1.2% of tests that did not meet the standards, the most significant were for pesticides. Others were for aluminium, iron and nitrite. For nitrite and some of the pesticide failures, the Company completed appropriate improvement programmes during 1995. The full effects of these improvements should be seen in the 1996 results. For aluminium, iron and other pesticide failures the Inspectorate has obtained a commitment from the Company to carry out improvement programmes.
The graph above shows the continued good water quality over the past five years. The Company, as it must, plans to improve the quality even further. It has given legally binding commitments to take steps to remove pesticides and improve its water mains in respect of iron, turbidity and aluminium. Traces of pesticides can enter water sources and the Company is installing treatment to remove them. Iron and turbidity arise from old water mains and the Company is replacing or repairing these. Aluminium arose from overloading of treatment works and the Company is installing link mains to rectify the problem. Most of these improvements will be complete by December 1997 but work on the water mains will extend beyond this date.
If you want more detailed information about quality of drinking water in your local area please contact the Company. Their telephone number is 01784 426800. | 
