Portsmouth Water plc supplies drinking water to about 647,000 people living in and around the City of Portsmouth. Much of the Company's water comes from spring sources at Havant and Bedhampton, with some coming from boreholes and the remainder from the River Itchen. The Company has 19 treatment works and distributes water through a network of 3,200 km of pipes and 42 service reservoirs.
Each year water companies are inspected. The 1995 inspection found that the Company's treatment processes and its arrangements for sampling, analysis and reporting were generally very satisfactory. Six recommendations for improvements in practices were made.
The quality of the water supplied by the Company in 1995 has been generally very good. Greater than 99.9% of the 26,570 tests performed by the Company met the standards - the tests were largely made on samples taken from consumers' taps. Of the less than 0.1% 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 only other significant failures to meet the standards were for nitrate and PAH. For nitrate the Company has taken remedial action and for PAH the Company completed an improvement programme at the end of 1995.
The graph above shows the continued good water quality over the past five years. The Company, as it must, has taken action to improve the quality even further. In 1995 it completed a legally binding commitment to take steps to improve its water mains. PAH arise from old water mains and the Company has cleaned, relined or replacing these as necessary. The full effect of these improvements should be seen in the 1996 results.
If you want more detailed information about the quality of drinking water in your local area please contact the Company. Their telephone number is 01705 499888. | 
