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Increasing concern about the state of public buildings offers an opportunity to accelerate the removal of lead from drinking water.
This was the view of experts at the Drinking Water Quality Conference this week, who insist there should be an urgent focus on the impact of lead on young people and the most vulnerable in particular.
Members of the UK Water Industry Lead Strategy Board, which was formed three years ago, set out the advances that have been made in reducing levels of lead in drinking water but warned against complacency.
John Fawell, of Cranfield University Water Science Institute, denied that lead was a public health crisis but added: “We do need to deal with it because lead, even at a lower level, can be harmful to children and that simply can’t be acceptable.”
Asked if the current high profile of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) meant it was a good time to engage government – and the public – on the need to address lead in school water supplies, Fawell responded: “Absolutely. There are ways you can mitigate the effects of lead. The government could have an alternative. One of those would be to target support at vulnerable children and those in deprived areas. Improving schooling and the home environment would have a massive impact.”
Clair Dunn, head of water quality at Anglian Water, said: “Schools have to be the priority. But to enable that change we need to reach the right departments. There are individual pieces of work but it needs to join up.”
Claire Pollard, senior water quality reporting scientist at Southern Water, hinted at the scale of the issue, referencing work she had done with Thames which identified up to 8,000 schools just within its service area that are likely to have some lead in their water system.
Pollard added: “Years ago when I was at the Drinking Water Inspectorate we tried to engage with government to say you need to raise lead up as a higher priority in your housing rating system. We struggled to get traction then but now that’s starting to become far more prevalent because of Grenfell and other issues. Perhaps now is the time to push this agenda forward.”
Europe-wide standards for lead in drinking water are set to be strengthened from the current level of 10 microgrammes per litre to 5 in 2036. This compares to 100 microgrammes per litre in 1976 and 25 as recently as 1989.
Ofwat has asked water companies to set out proposals for reducing lead in drinking water in their PR24 plans.
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