"In England we enjoy clean safe tap water but regional variations in quality, whilst only small, continued in 2008"
said Professor Colbourne, Chief Inspector of Drinking Water.
The best tap water quality can be found in the Thames region (99.98 per cent) closely followed by the Central and Eastern regions (99.97 per cent). The lowest figures were reported in the Northern (99.93 per cent) and Southern regions (99.95 per cent). The Western region achieved the industry average figure of 99.96 per cent.
Areas for water industry improvement flagged in the report are:
- Improved supervision of operational staff to ensure faults are promptly identified and rectified
- The need for public water supply assets to be maintained to preserve the good quality of tap water into the future
