Sutton and East Surrey Water plc supplies drinking water to about 608,000 people in parts of Surrey and Kent and in the London Boroughs of Sutton, Croydon and Merton. Until April 1996, the area was supplied by two separate companies, the Sutton District Water PLC and East Surrey Water PLC. Most of the Company's water comes from boreholes. The remainder is taken from the River Eden and stored in the Bough Beech reservoir. The Company has ten treatment works and distributes water through a network of 3,300 km of pipes and 37 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 generally satisfactory. Twenty-four recommendations for improvements in practices were made.


The quality of the water supplied by the Company in 1995 has been generally very good. 98.3% of the 28,509 tests performed by the Company met the standards - the tests were largely made on samples taken from consumers' taps. Of the 1.7% of tests that did not meet the standards a few were for coliform bacteria. When these bacteria were detected, the cause was investigated and generally corrected, although the Company gave a commitment to carry out further investigation in one case. Other significant failures to meet the standards were for nitrite, trihalomethanes and pesticides. For all of these substances, the Company has completed appropriate improvement programmes.


The graph above shows generally good water quality over the past five years. Although the figures for overall compliance have declined, the Company, as it must, plans to improve the quality of water supplied and the Inspectorate will be monitoring the situation closely. Iron arises from old water mains and the Company is replacing or repairing these. These improvements will extend beyond December 1996.


If you want more detailed information about quality of drinking water in your local area please contact the Company. Their telephone number is 01737 772000.

     


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

     
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Reviewed 1 October 1996