DWQR calls for action on discolouration as it reports 99.88% compliance for 2025

(by Karma Loveday)

The Drinking Water Quality Regulator for Scotland called for more to be done to reduce “avoidable incidents” and water discolouration as it issued its drinking water quality report for 2025. This showed 99.88% of 137,947 regulatory tests met required standards, a slight reduction in performance compared to 2024.

Key findings included: 

• 22 out of 62,134 tests on samples of water leaving water treatment works failed to meet standards, which is comparable to recent years.

• Scottish Water received 17,558 complaints from consumers about the quality of their drinking water in 2025, which is a 5% increase on 2024. Most were in connection with the supply of discoloured water.

• The number of water quality incidents requiring detailed investigation by the DWQR during 2025 was 36, compared with 34 in the previous year, “a figure the regulator considers too high”.

• David Reynolds, the Drinking Water Quality Regulator, said: “Whilst consumers can remain confident that Scotland’s drinking water is safe and of a very high quality, too many short-lived incidents that affect customers could have been prevented, and that's an area where I need to see real improvement.

“Consumers rightly expect their tap water to look, taste and smell good. While the vast majority receive excellent quality drinking water every day, incidents of discoloured water continue to affect some customers. Addressing this issue is important to maintaining public trust and confidence in Scotland’s drinking water supplies’’.