Drinking Water Source Protection

The WHO Guidelines for Drinking Water Quality outline “Water safety planning is the most effective means of consistently ensuring the safety of a drinking-water supply”. Source Protection is the first step in ensuring the safety of a water supply for the customer.

The recast Drinking Water Directive (EU) 2020/2184 and the European Union (Drinking Water) Regulations 2023 (S.I. 99 of 2023) which transposes the directive into national legislation require the application of a risk based approach to catchment areas for drinking water supplies.

This Guidance document provides a framework for a national approach to Drinking Water Source Protection. The fundamental principal is the better the quality of the source water the easier it is to treat that water to the standards required under the recast Directive. This framework builds on the practices already in place and allocates responsibility for the various actions to the relevant stakeholders.

This Drinking Water Source Protection Guidance has been developed to meet the requirements of the recast Directive, the European Union (Drinking Water) Regulations 2023 and be complementary to the overall Water Framework Directive implementation process.