Water has a place in the Irish psyche. There is a feeling no one should have to pay for it, an attitude especially prevalent in rural areas. Access to plenty of water is a symbol of Irish freedom.
There is also considerable resistance to treating water chemically, even if it is increasingly necessary from a public health perspective.
The belief is: it was pristine and always will be if you keep half an eye on it, so why "interfere" with it?
Mr Bernard Keeley, joint national co-ordinator of the National Federation of Group Water Schemes, knows there is no room for such naivety in the face of gross pollution of so many rural drinking water supplies.
Yet this culture is one of the complicating factors in ensuring good drinking water, and shows how difficult it will be to rectify the problem.
He cites a not infrequent occurrence: a chlorination plant runs out of chlorine and those operating the scheme see no reason to get it back into action or provide alternative disinfection.
Then there are the communities using water facilities which are not in their own name, or without a right of way to them - not to mention cattle grazing directly over wellheads.
There will be no place for such laxness under the new regime of capital grants and maintenance funding tied into strict operational undertakings, he says.
Under new regulations introduced in November (further reinforced by the Minister for the Environment in March), every deficient group scheme has to produce an action programme to improve water quality as soon as practicable. Group schemes supply some 160,000 households in rural areas - 75,000 of which are part privately run schemes, with the remainder receiving local authority water.
Under a new grant structure, there is up to £5,100 per household to upgrade supply, 100 per cent grant aid for capital works may be available, and possible subsidies of up to £155 per house a year exist for ongoing operation.
With this, he says the focus has shifted on to "disinfection, maintenance and operational contracts".
Every scheme above 15 households will need an operational contract.
In Roscommon, for example, 21 schemes have contracted a French company, Generale des Eaux, to oversee their operation.
In individual cases, a qualified/certified operator is required.
The NFGWS acts as facilitator and legal agent in this process.
By January, Mr Keeley hopes a quality assurance scheme will be in place where annual certification is issued. He accepts there are still colossal quality problems but lists the measures set to bring about change.
The required education, a proper development process with effective maintenance and operation, and financial structures are falling into place, although he accepts county-wide strategic plans for water supply are far behind schedule.
However, in some cases money was simply not available to do the work envisaged.
Difficult issues of ownership and water pricing also have to be addressed.
He is reassured by comparisons with many parts of Europe; our water is eminently treatable, he adds - but getting treatment right is an issue.
When will there be evidence of significant improvement?
The Government is committing £420 million to rural water over the next seven years. This year £33 million was provided.
A national rural water monitoring committee believes the bulk of money should be made available in the 2001 to 2002 period.
Clearly, there will be a division between local authority and private scheme projects but where the balance lies is critical. All told, Mr Keeley predicts substantial progress by 2001. Because of heavy reliance on groundwater, such as wells which are showing signs of environmental strain, larger schemes at least are now moving to protect such sources.
But he accepts "there is a long way to go". And with a move away from chemical treatment towards microfiltration and use of ozone, the purists may be happy too.
Yet new threats to water quality - microbes such as gardia, cryptosporidium and cyano bacteria - and new concerns, such as the presence of trihalomethanes arising from over-chlorination, underline the need for vigilance.
The environmental group, Voice, warns of "our wasteful and polluting way of living".
