Drinking water quality in England and Wales is regulated by the DWI. It ensures that all
companies supply water that is safe to drink and complies with all National and European
standards. A company reports all results of the samples taken at customers’ taps, treatment
works and reservoirs to the DWI on a monthly basis. To verify the results the DWI carries out
Audits and can inspect any sites or activities with little or no warning. They will conduct an
investigation into any incident that affects drinking water quality, and follow up any
customer complaints relating to water quality.
Environment Agency (EA) (8.00 minute)
River pollution, environmental quality, water resource planning and flooding is regulated by
the EA. They are a public body set up to protect and improve the environment, issue:
abstraction licences which allow water companies to take water from the rivers, and
permits to discharge treated effluents back into the rivers.
An issue of public health (flocculation) (at 8.21 minute)
Turbidity and floating particles
Did you know that small floating particles in the water
can make you sick? If you look into the microscope and
we can zoom into, what do we find? What are these
small floating particles and how do they float? These
particles are of two types, inorganic (like clay, silt and mineral oxides) and organic (like
algae, protozoa and bacteria). The bacteria once ingested by humans can sometimes be
fatal. All of these small particles are able to float because they are not heavy enough to
settle to the bottom by gravity. Suspended particles that are too light and small to settle are
called colloids. When looked at together these colloids cause a state of cloudiness or
haziness, known as turbidity. The more cloudy a fluid looks, the more turbid it is. There is a
relation between turbidity and the risk of getting a disease. Science shows that the more
turbid the drinking water is, the higher the risk of getting a disease is.