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Water Quality Monitoring within North Ayrshire
Monitoring of Swimming Pools
Swimming is an enjoyable and healthy pastime for many people. However, swimming pools can be a source of infection if the water is inadequately treated.
Pool water chemistry is very complex and requires consistent monitoring to ensure that the condition of the water is optimal for the bather load. It is necessary to examine the chemical and bactgeriological quality of the water to ensure it is safe for use.
Monitoring is undertaken by simple tests at the poolside and chemical and bacteriological samples are taken for more thorough analyses. The monitoring is the responsibility of the pool operator.
As a basic public health measure, Environmental Health monitors the quality of swimming pool waters by an annual programme of sampling. In addition, some pool operators have requested a higher level of pool water monitoring for their own purposes and Environmental Health has contracted with them to take more than the minimum number of samples in the programme. Around 300 samples are taken per year and results notified to the operators.
Public Water Supplies Information
The public water supply is the prime responsibility of Scottish Water. There are 30 separate public supplies serving North Ayrshire. Scottish Water (Customer Helpline 0800 731 0840) do their own quality control sampling at treatment works and at customers' taps routinely and on receipt of complaints.
The local authority has a statutory duty to ensure that public water supplies are wholesome and adequate and to do this Environmental Health monitors supplies by taking samples for bacteriological examination and chemical analysis. Sampling is done both routinely and following complaint where there may be a public health dimension to the complaint.
We take over 200 water samples from public and private water supplies in a typical year.