Private Water Supplies

Private water supplies can be defined as water supplies that are not provided by a statutory water undertaker and where the responsibility for its maintenance and repair lies with the owner or person who uses it.

A private water supply can serve a single household and provide less than one cubic meter of water per day or it can serve many properties or commercial or industrial premises or a combination of these and provide 1000m3 per day or more.

Sources of these supplies can be from a borehole, well, deep spring, shallow spring loch, burn or river.

Classification of Private Water Supplies

The classification of a private water supply takes into account a number of factors such as:

* The volume of water produced

* The numbers of population served by the supply

* Domestic, commercial, industrial usage

* How many premises a domestic supply serves

* Whether the supply serves only persons normally resident on the premises; or

* is the premise used for commercial food production, has a public activity

   associated with it or has a changing population.

In West Dunbartonshire Council we have 18 private water supplies serving approximately 100 residents and a large number of visitors to the area.

Private water supplies are, by their nature, very vulnerable to contamination that may cause waterborne infections or other ill effects. Contamination can be bacteriological in nature, from faecal matter such as human sewage or animal droppings, or may arise from chemical sources, such as fertilizer run-off from fields or deterioration of distribution pipe work.

The Private Water Supplies (Scotland) Regulations 2006 came into force on 3 July 2006 and replaced The Private Water Supplies (Scotland) Regulations 1992.

There are also Scottish Statutory Instrument documents explaining the latest regulations:

* The Private Water Supplies (Notices) (Scotland) Regulations 2006 

* The Private Water Supplies (Grants) (Scotland) Regulations. Under the new regulations private water supplies are defined as either:

Private Water Supply Categories

Under the 2006 Regulations, private water supplies can now be categorised as being a Type A supply or a Type B supply.

These are defined as:

• Type A - Supplies serving 50 or more persons and supplies to commercial or public activities irrespective of size, or
• Type B - Supplies serving only domestic premises with less than 50 persons supplied.

Type A supplies fall within the provisions of the E.C. Drinking Water Directive (98/83/EC) which require each supply to be sampled and analysed for a wide range of parameters at least once a year.

Type B supplies are required to comply with a limited range of parameters that are defined in the regulations and will not form part of a statutory sampling programme.

Staff from Environmental Health’s Public Health & Pollution Team routinely monitor high risk (serving more than 50 persons or commercial / public premises) private water supplies as part of their statutory duties. The information gathered is made available for public scrutiny in the form of a Public Register of Private Supplies.

If you have a query relating to Private Water Supplies please contact us at Rosebery Place, Clydebank G81 1TG, email us at environmental.health@west-dunbarton.gov.uk or for more information log on to www.privatewatersupplies.gov.uk

Grant Funding

None-means tested grant funding of up to £800 per property may be available to you to improve your private water supply. For further information contact us as above.

Grant Application - Microsoft Word Format

Grant Application - PDF Format