Register of Private Water Supplies in Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland's Drinking Water Inspectorate maintains a geospatial register of private water supplies under the Private Water Supplies Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2017. The dataset consists of 100m by 100m square polygons randomly placed around registered supply locations, covering supplies to public or commercial premises or multiple dwellings. It includes both currently and historically monitored supplies.

Use Cases

• Regulatory compliance monitoring based on the legal register of supplies.
• Public health risk assessment based on the location of non-public water sources.
• Infrastructure and land-use planning based on geospatial supply locations.
• Historical tracking of water supply monitoring based on current and historical records.

Strengths

• Legally mandated register, providing an official record of regulated supplies.
• Includes historical records, allowing for tracking changes over time.
• Available in multiple geospatial formats (CSV, GeoJSON, SHP) for broad tool compatibility.

Limitations

• Conflicting update dates across sources (e.g., 31 Dec 2022, 1 Apr 2026, 30 Mar 2021) create uncertainty about data freshness.
• Specific column names and row counts are not provided, limiting understanding of data granularity.
• The 100m square polygons are randomly placed, not precise point locations of the supplies.

Provenance

Source

Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI), Northern Ireland.

Collection Method

Collected and maintained as a statutory register under the Private Water Supplies Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2017.

Freshness

Most recent update cited is 1 April 2026, but other sources list older dates.

Geography

Northern Ireland, United Kingdom.