Northumbrian Water Limited supplies drinking water to about 2.5 million people living in the north east of England which includes the urban areas of Tyneside, Wearside and Teesside and a largely rural area of Northumberland. Until April 1996 the area was supplied by two separate companies, North East Water Plc and Northumbrian Water Limited. Most of the Company's water supplies come from reservoirs and rivers. About 8% comes from boreholes. The Company has 58 treatment works and distributes water through a network of 15,900 km of pipes and 261 service reservoirs.


Each year water companies are inspected. The 1995 inspection found that the Company's arrangements for sampling, analysis and reporting were generally very good and that treatment processes were satisfactory. Progress with improvement programmes was found to be generally satisfactory but deadlines were tight and the Company had difficulty in meeting one. Sixteen recommendations for improvements in practices were made.


The quality of the water supplied by the Company in 1995 has been generally very good. 99.8% of the 171,009 tests performed by the Company met the standards - the tests were largely made on samples taken from consumers' taps. Of the 0.2% of tests that did not meet the standards some were for coliform bacteria. Each time these bacteria were detected the cause was investigated and any problems identified were corrected. The other significant failures to meet the standards were for iron and manganese. For each of these substances the Company is carrying out an improvement programme.


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 a legally binding commitment to take steps to improve its water mains. The iron and manganese problems arise from the condition of old water mains and the Company is replacing or repairing many of these. Work on the water mains will take time to complete.


If you want more detailed information about the quality of drinking water in your local area please contact the Company. Their telephone number is 0191 383 2222.

     


The Drinking Water Inspectorate checks that your drinking water is properly tested and that action is taken to put right breaches of standards. The results of the tests given overleaf have been carefully audited and give an accurate picture of the quality of water supplied by the company.

Drinking water standards in England and Wales include all those in the European Community Directive on drinking water and are mainly based on levels recommended by the World Health Organisation. Those of significance to health have generally been set with a wide safety margin. The occasional breaches of the standards which have happened do not mean the water was not suitable for drinking.

The Inspectorate assesses each breach of the standards and if necessary requires water companies to give legally binding undertakings to carry out improvements.

The summary of the 1995 Report gives the results of tests for England and Wales as a whole and sets out in more detail how the quality of your drinking water is checked and the significance of each of the listed substances. Printed copies of each Water Company Summary, and the Summary of the 1995 Report are available from :

The Drinking Water Inspectorate
Room B155
Romney House
43 Marsham Street
London SW1P 3PY

Telephone: 0171 276 8808/8666

We welcome your comments on this site.
Reviewed 1 October 1996