Environmental Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Environmental Law - Essay Example But what really has the government done in order to protect the quality and safety of drinking water? What are the relevant UK laws or legislation that have been implemented in order to provide for this basic need? This paper hopes to present the relevant UK legislation as regards the quality of drinking water, including the standard EC directives and also hopes to present some of the issues and concerns regarding the maintenance of safe drinking water in UK. Since 1848, there have been legislation regarding the quality of water and sanitation in the UK, starting with the Public Health Act (EEHC, 2007). This act gave the Boards of Health the power to improve public health through the provision of better or enhanced water supplies, drainage and sanitation (EEHC, 2007). The water management handled before by the public sector, was privatized and the responsibility then was divided between the private water companies and the regulatory body, the National Rivers Authority (Rydin, 193). The 1989 Water Act, provided for the so-called â€Å"statutory water quality objectives† and schemes by the NRA (Rydin, 1993). The said act also provided for the protection of sources of water especially of drinking water through so-called â€Å"zoning designated perimeters† where possible contaminants of human activities are prohibited (Kiss and Shelton, 1993). Furthermore, under this Act, the Government is given the authority to select areas wh ich are Nitrate Sensitive to prevent nitrate from seeping into waters as a result of the use of fertilizers (Kiss and Shelton, 1993). Aside from this, the European Commission (EC) directives that sets the standards for chemical parameters and biological measurements, must be applied and taking into regard the appropriate uses of water (Rydin, 1993). These are stringent measures which protect drinking water (Howarth, 2006). The numeric quality standards of drinking water was set by the 1980 EC drinking water directive and gave