The Water and Sewerage Services (Northern Ireland) Order 2006

Standards of wholesomeness

107.—(1) The Department may by regulations make provision that water supplied to any premises by a water undertaker is or is not to be regarded as wholesome for the purposes of this Chapter if it satisfies or, as the case may be, fails to satisfy such requirements as may be prescribed.

(2) DOE may by regulations make provision that water supplied to any premises by means of a private supply is or is not to be regarded as wholesome for the purposes of this Chapter if it satisfies or, as the case may be, fails to satisfy such requirements as may be prescribed.

(3) Without prejudice to the generality of paragraphs (1) and (2), regulations under this Article may, for the purpose of determining the wholesomeness of any water—

(a) prescribe general requirements as to the purposes for which the water is to be suitable;

(b) prescribe specific requirements as to the substances that are to be present in or absent from the water and as to the concentrations of substances which are or are required to be present in the water;

(c) prescribe specific requirements as to other characteristics of the water;

(d) provide that the question whether prescribed requirements are satisfied may be determined by reference to such samples as may be prescribed;

(e) enable the Department (in the case of regulations under paragraph (1)) or DOE (in the case of regulations under paragraph (2)) to authorise such relaxations of and departures from the prescribed requirements (or from any of them) as may be prescribed, to make any such authorisation subject to such conditions as may be prescribed and to modify or revoke any such authorisation or condition.