New figures show there are more than 560,000 people across Ireland drinking water from treatment plants where water contamination is possible.
The Environmental Protection Agency recently added eleven treatment plants to its remedial action list last week - which means there are people whose water supplies are at risk of contamination.
Although Irish Water had worked to bring this number south of 375,000 by the end of 2021 there are now 57 additional plants are now on the list.
READ MORE: Hundreds of Irish homes and businesses left without drinking water
The number of people being asked to boil their water for drinking and cooking increased from 75,000 in 2020 to was 211,000 last year.
According to reports, Dr. Michelle Minihan of the EPA told the Oireachtas Housing Committee that Ireland was an “outlier” in Europe - because we are still dealing with THM issues.
Meanwhile, Seán Laffey, head of assets at Irish Water, said these issues are being taken seriously and work is being done to correct them.
He said this is due to the amount of organic matter entering water supplies in Ireland because it is being sourced from bogland.
As well as this, heavy bursts of rain seen throughout past winter months have washed even more organic material into water sources.
However, Mr. Laffey reassured the public that the water quality was by no means getting worse, and that Irish Water’s standards were increasing.
“That’s bad news in the short term because more supplies end up on the RAL, but it’s good news in the long-term because it means we have identified a problem and can fix it.”
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