Rural & Off Grid Water Supplies in the UK

Safe drinking water wherever you live

It’s not unusual these days to see news articles about disruptions to UK mains water supplies, with UK residents having to rely on bottled water while issues are fixed. In fact, in 2025 so far, there have been problems in Norwich, Durham, Boston, Eastbourne, Crowle, Sandown, Crystal Palace, Goole, Glasgow, Severnoaks, Tonbridge and more. These water outages make headlines on a weekly basis as residents struggle to cope without reliable tap water for days at a time.

Little is said however, about the rural communities that have never had access to mains water and, more recently, communities and households that have opted to live off-grid, forsaking many modern conveniences. So what options do those people have?

Private Water Supplies (PWS)

According to the Drinking Water Inspectorate, around 1% of the UK population are relying on private water supplies.  These include:

• Boreholes: Wells drilled into the ground to access groundwater.
• Natural springs: Water sources where groundwater emerges naturally.
• Watercourses: Rivers, streams, and other bodies of surface water.

Landowners on rural estates, farms and off-grid communities need to manage their water supply responsibly, ensuring compliance with regulations.

Water Quality

Ensuring the safety and quality of water from private sources is crucial, as these supplies can be vulnerable to contamination. As tempting as it is to believe the ‘bottled at source’ marketing messages from bottled water producers, water straight from the ground is unlikely to be safe to drink, and will need some form of treatment before it’s consumed by people.

When it comes to providing safe drinking water, the LifeSaver C1 Community Water Purifier was originally designed to support people overseas living in water poverty, but is seeing a rise in demand locally as more and more people choose to take control of their UK water supply.

The Community Choice

The C1 is a gravity-fed water purifier that filters harvested rain water, or water from wells, rivers and boreholes, removing 99.99% of any bacteria, viruses, protozoa, sediment and microplastics that might be present.

It is capable of purifying up to 500,000 litres of water, providing a small community of 100 people safe drinking water for over four years before the filter cartridge needs replacing. It doesn’t use chemicals or electricity, and has failsafe technology that tells you when it’s time to renew. Multiple units can be daisy-chained together, running from the same source, multiplying the output.

The C1 is surprisingly lightweight, supplied in a cardboard box around the size of an upright vacuum cleaner, complete with a brass tap and all the connections you’ll need to hook it up to the water supply. The only requirement is pressure of at least 0.2 Bar (2.85 PSI) which is where a header tank comes in.

How can we help?

If you’re looking to improve the quality of the water from your private source or are putting plans together to go off-grid, the team at Icon LifeSaver are available to answer any questions you might have and advise on how best to install a C1 at your property. Get in touch today to find out more.

And for those of you that are at the mercy of the British water providers; why not invest in a LifeSaver Cube to keep on hand if the worst happens? You can safely store it for up to 10 years for a water emergency or use it on camping trips.