The Drinking Water Inspectorate


The DWI website provides access to several hundred research reports funded by Defra and predecessor Government Departments. These reports include seminal publications on nitrates, disinfection by-products, pesticides, plumbosolvency and Cryptosporidium that directly influenced Government policy on control of health risks from drinking water. Other studies include innovative water treatment and mains renovation techniques that now provide the basis for water undertaker’s investment programmes. At least one of the reports (Economics of Lead Pipe Replacement) was so important that it affected share prices of some water companies when they were floated on the stock market in 1989. Abstracts of all research publications can be accessed on the FWR Library section DWI pages; for full copies of the reports, a link is provided to the DWI website.


DWI manages Defra’s Water Directorate Drinking Water Quality and Health (DWQH) research programme. The DWQH programme supports development and review of Defra and the Welsh Assembly Government policy on the quality and regulation of water supplies and enables the Inspectorate to make an input to international drinking water issues. Details of current projects, proposals for future research and a research newsletter are available on the DWI website.

Publication of research outputs

Detailed abstracts and links to free downloadable copies of research reports are available from the FWR Library.