Scottish Water Response to Drinking Water Quality Regulator's Annual Report

“We welcome the DWQR support for the need to increase investment in ageing assets and to adapt to a changing climate.”

Alex Plant
CEO, Scottish Water

Scottish Water's Chief Executive has responded to the independent Drinking Water Quality Regulator’s (DWQR) annual report on public water supplies which has praised the standards of Scotland's public water supply and highlighted the impact of climate change on future service.
 
Alex Plant said: “We are delighted that the DWQR has reported that the quality of Scotland’s drinking water remains ‘among the finest in the world’ – with 99.88% of more than 272,000 regulatory tests meeting the required standards - and we welcome his support for the need to increase investment in ageing assets and to adapt to a changing climate.
 
“The biggest impact on total compliance in 2023 was microbiological performance at Treated Water Storage Points (TWSPs). We have more than 1200 of these assets and we have seen an increasing number of challenges in meeting strict water quality standards, mostly due to their age and persistent heavy rainfall resulting in ingress into tanks and a deterioration in water quality.”
 
“We are making good progress in carrying out improvements to these TWSPs. We recognised this risk as a key area and delivered record investment in the past year and will sustain this to address the risk to water quality.
 
“Many assets across our network are ageing and will need extra maintenance before ultimately needing to be replaced. Most were not designed to cope with the type of weather conditions which are now the norm due to Climate Change. This makes it ever more difficult to continue to improve drinking water quality. But we outlined in our Climate Change Adaptation Plan an estimate that over the next 25 years we will need an additional £2 billion to £5 billion above existing expected investment to maintain services.”

The latest DWQR Report  can be found here: Annual Report (dwqr.scot)