Public water supply and sanitation in the United Kingdom is characterised by universal access and generally good

service quality Service quality (SQ), in its contemporary conceptualisation, is a comparison of perceived expectations (E) of a service with perceived performance (P), giving rise to the equation SQ=P-E. This conceptualistion of service quality has its origins in ...

. A salient feature of the sector in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

compared to other developed countries is the diversity of institutional arrangements between the constituting parts of the UK (

England and Wales England and Wales () is one of the three legal jurisdictions of the United Kingdom. It covers the constituent countries England and Wales and was formed by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. The substantive law of the jurisdiction is Eng ...

;

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

; and

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

), which are each described in separate articles, while this article is devoted to some common issues across the United Kingdom.

Access

Access to improved

water supply Water supply is the provision of water by public utilities, commercial organisations, community endeavors or by individuals, usually via a system of pumps and pipes. Public water supply systems are crucial to properly functioning societies. Thes ...

and sanitation in the UK is universal. In 2015, 100% of the population had access to improved water supply and 99% of the population had access to " improved" sanitation.WHO/UNICEF (2015
Progress on sanitation and drinking water - 2015 update and MDG assessment
Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation Source:

WHO Who or WHO may refer to: * Who (pronoun), an interrogative or relative pronoun * Who?, one of the Five Ws in journalism * World Health Organization Arts and entertainment Fictional characters * Who, a creature in the Dr. Seuss book '' Horton He ...

UNICEF UNICEF (), originally called the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund in full, now officially United Nations Children's Fund, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing Humanitarianism, humanitarian and Devel ...

Joint Monitoring Program (2008)

Water sources

According to the Environment Agency, total water abstraction for public water supply in the UK was 16,406

megalitre The litre (international spelling) or liter (American English spelling) (SI symbols L and l, other symbol used: ℓ) is a metric unit of volume. It is equal to 1 cubic decimetre (dm3), 1000 cubic centimetres (cm3) or 0.001 cubic metre (m3). ...

s per day in 2007.

Groundwater Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available freshwater in the world is groundwater. A unit of rock or an unconsolidate ...

contributes 30 per cent of public supply water in England. In Wales and Scotland groundwater provides about five per cent of public supply. The majority of the UK's abstraction of surface water is from reservoirs, where rainwater is transported via rivers and streams and contained in an artificial or natural lake until it is required.

Responsibility for water supply and sanitation

Policy and regulation

In England and Wales the economic regulator of water companies is the

Water Services Regulation Authority The Water Services Regulation Authority, or Ofwat, is the body responsible for economic regulation of the privatised water and sewerage industry in England and Wales. Ofwat's main statutory duties include protecting the interests of consumers, secu ...

(Ofwat). The

Environment Agency The Environment Agency (EA) is a non-departmental public body, established in 1996 and sponsored by the United Kingdom government's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with responsibilities relating to the protection and enha ...

is responsible for environmental regulation, and the

Drinking Water Inspectorate The Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI) is a section of Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) set up to regulate the public water supply companies in England and Wales. Based in Whitehall, it produces an annual report showing th ...

for regulating drinking water quality. The economic

water industry The water industry provides drinking water and wastewater services (including sewage treatment) to residential, commercial, and industrial sectors of the economy. Typically public utilities operate water supply networks. The water industry doe ...

regulator in

is th
Water Industry Commission for Scotland
and the environmental regulator is the

Scottish Environment Protection Agency The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA; gd, Buidheann Dìon Àrainneachd na h-Alba) is Scotland's Environmental regulation, environmental regulator and national flood forecasting, flood warning and strategic flood risk management au ...

. Drinking water standards and wastewater discharge standards in the UK, as in other countries of the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

, were determined by the EU (see

Water supply and sanitation in the European Union Water supply and sanitation (WSS) in the European Union (EU) is the responsibility of each member state, but in the 21st century union-wide policies have come into effect. Water resources are limited and supply and sanitation systems are under pre ...

) before

Brexit Brexit (; a portmanteau of "British exit") was the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February 2020 CET).The UK also left the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or ...

Service provision

In England and Wales water and sewerage services are provided by 10 private regional water and sewerage companies and 13 mostly smaller private "water only" companies. In Scotland water and sewerage services are provided by a single public company,

Scottish Water Scottish Water is a statutory corporation that provides water and sewerage services across Scotland. It is accountable to the public through the Scottish Government. Operations Scottish Water provides drinking water to 2.46 million households ...

. In Northern Ireland water and sewerage services are also provided by a single public entity,

Northern Ireland Water Northern Ireland Water Limited ( ga, Uisce Thuaisceart Éireann; Ulster-Scots: ''Norlin Airlan Wattèr'') is a water company in Northern Ireland. Formerly an executive agency within Northern Ireland Executive, it became a government-owned co ...

Employment

Total employment by UK water companies amounted to 41,000

full-time equivalent Full-time equivalent (FTE), or whole time equivalent (WTE), is a unit that indicates the workload of an employee, employed person (or student) in a way that makes workloads or class loads comparable across various contexts. FTE is often used to me ...

jobs in 2012/13, according to an analysis by the consulting firm

Deloitte Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (), commonly referred to as Deloitte, is an international professional services network headquartered in London, England. Deloitte is the largest professional services network by revenue and number of profession ...

. In addition, 86,000 jobs were supported indirectly.

Financial aspects

Tariffs

According to a 2006 survey by NUS consulting the average

water tariff A water tariff (often called ''water rate'' in the United States and Canada) is a price assigned to water supplied by a public utility through a piped network to its customers. The term is also often applied to wastewater tariffs. Water and wastewat ...

(price) without sewerage in the U.K. for large consumers was the equivalent of US$1.90 per cubic metre. This was the third-highest tariff among the 14 mostly OECD countries covered by the report.

Metering

A particularity of water tariffs in the U.K. is the low share of metering. Most users are not billed on a volumetric basis and have no financial incentive for water conservation. Since the 1990s efforts have been made to increase the share of household metering, which reached 33% in 2008. The Environment Agency would like to see 75% of households metered by 2025. The Fairness on Tap coalition (including

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

, Waterwise, WWF and

RSPB The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is a Charitable_organization#United_Kingdom, charitable organisation registered in Charity Commission for England and Wales, England and Wales and in Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, ...

) is calling for the government to set out a strategy to install water meters in at least 80% of England where there is the greatest pressure on the freshwater environment and people's pockets, by 2020. Studies show that water meters lead to a 5-15% reduction in household water use.

Ownership

A 2022 study, found that over 70% of the English water industry is in foreign hands (foreign ownership).

References

External links

Water UK

Environment Agency
's water quality website
Water Resources Management in Cooperation with Agriculture project
{{Water supply and sanitation by country