Lead has not been permitted for new drinking water pipes since 1960, but the old pipework was never replaced everywhere. In 2019 the Gezondheidsraad (Health Council of the Netherlands) estimated that somewhere in the order of one hundred to two hundred thousand homes built before 1960 still have lead pipes, often hidden in walls and floors or remaining only as a short section by the water meter. Tap water from the mains in the Netherlands is of high quality; the problem only arises inside the home, where standing water absorbs lead from the pipe. This article explains how to recognise a lead pipe, what the health advice is, who has to replace what, what you can demand as a tenant and the smartest way to tackle the replacement.
Which homes, and where to look
Homes at risk are those built before 1960 that have not been extensively renovated since: pre-war town houses, workers' cottages, old farmhouses and subdivided mansion houses. A home that has been renovated may also still have a lead section in a spot that was left untouched during the work: the pipe from the water meter to the kitchen, a branch to an outdoor tap, an old toilet supply or the pipe in the crawl space. In a block of flats, the rising main or the pipe in the shared basement may be made of lead, while the pipes in your own flat have already been replaced.
Start at the water meter and the main stopcock, usually in the meter cupboard, under a hatch by the front door or in the crawl space. Follow the pipe from the meter as far as you can: to the kitchen tap, the bathroom, the toilet and the boiler. Also look in the crawl space and at points where pipes pass through walls and floors, where old sections have often been left in place because they were hard to reach.
How to recognise a lead pipe
- Colour and surface: dull dark grey to bluish grey, with no shine. Copper is reddish brown or has a green patina; galvanised steel is light grey and often rusty at the joints; plastic is white, grey or black and light in weight.
- Scratch test: if you scratch the surface with a small knife or screwdriver, lead immediately turns shiny silver. Copper and steel barely scratch.
- Shape: lead pipes are soft and flexible; they often run in a winding line, with bends that have no elbows or couplings, and with bulges at the soldered joints.
- Sound: if you tap it with a spoon, lead sounds dull; copper and steel sound clear.
- Magnet: a magnet will not stick to lead or copper, but it will stick to galvanised steel. So the magnet distinguishes steel from the rest; the scratch test distinguishes lead from copper.
If in doubt, you can have the water tested by a certified laboratory, preferably with a stagnation measurement of water that has stood in the pipe overnight. Drinking water companies such as Vitens have a lead advice desk (loodloket) where you can submit a photo of the pipe. An accredited installer can usually tell at a glance.
Health: what the Gezondheidsraad and the RIVM advise
Lead accumulates in the body and is particularly harmful to brain development. In its advisory report Loodinname via kraanwater (Lead intake via tap water, 2019), the Gezondheidsraad concluded that lead is more harmful than previously assumed and that the risk groups are: bottle-fed infants, young children up to about seven years old and unborn children via their pregnant mother. In children, too much lead can lead to a lower IQ; in adults it increases the risk of cardiovascular disease and chronic kidney damage. According to the RIVM (National Institute for Public Health and the Environment), in homes with lead pipes a large share of daily lead intake can come from tap water.
The advice is unambiguous: have lead pipes replaced. Until that has happened, the Gezondheidsraad, the RIVM and the drinking water companies advise using bottled water for pregnant women, bottle feeds and young children, and running the tap thoroughly every morning and after a longer absence before you drink or cook with the water. Hot water from the tap is not recommended for consumption, because hot water absorbs more lead. Municipalities and drinking water companies regard a tap water filter at most as a temporary emergency measure, not as a solution; as far as we know there is no Dutch certification for lead filters, and a filter only protects the tap it is fitted to. The legal standard for lead in drinking water at the tap is being tightened at European level from 10 to 5 micrograms per litre; that stricter limit applies from 2036 and until then 10 micrograms remains the formal standard, although the RIVM already uses the value of 5 micrograms in its public information.
Who is responsible: up to and beyond the water meter
Responsibility is clearly divided. The drinking water company is responsible for the main in the street and the service pipe up to and including the water meter. The drinking water companies have made their own networks almost entirely lead-free and are actively tracking down the last lead service pipes; if you report a suspicion, they will come and look and replace their part free of charge. Everything beyond the water meter, the internal installation, is the responsibility of the owner of the property: for an owner-occupied home that is you, for a rented home the landlord, and for a flat the Vereniging van Eigenaars (VvE, owners' association) for the shared pipes and the owner for the pipes in their own flat. The splitsingsakte (deed of division) determines exactly where that boundary lies; how to organise such work within a VvE is explained in Renovating in a VvE flat: permission and rules. An owner-occupier is not legally required to replace lead pipes, but does bear the health risk; some municipalities offer support or a subsidy, so check with your municipality.
Rented home: lead in the drinking water is a defect
If you rent, the landlord is responsible for replacing lead pipes. The Huurcommissie (Rent Tribunal) regards an excessive lead concentration in tap water as a serious defect: the supplementary C list of its Beleidsboek Gebreken (defects policy handbook) states that tap water from the indoor drinking water installation may contain on average no more than 5 micrograms of lead per litre at a tap. For a defect in category C, the Huurcommissie can temporarily reduce the rent of a social rented home to 40 per cent of the applicable rent until the defect has been remedied. According to the handbook, it is up to the tenant to demonstrate the excessive concentration with a measurement by a certified laboratory using one of the prescribed methods; so first ask the landlord yourself for a measurement or for replacement, and put your request in writing. The Dutch government points out that if the landlord refuses, you can go to the Huurcommissie or, in the private rental sector, to the courts.
In addition, in 2022 the Dutch cabinet decided on a ban on lead pipes in rented homes and child-care locations (childcare centres, childminders and primary schools), laid down in the Besluit bouwwerken leefomgeving (Bbl, the Dutch Building Decree), with the same limit of 5 micrograms per litre and a transition period for owners. That ban gives municipalities the option of compelling landlords to replace the pipes through administrative enforcement. At the time of writing, the date on which this provision takes effect had not yet been set; check the current status with your municipality or on the Dutch government website. The ban does not apply to owner-occupiers.
Replacement: approach, combining it with a renovation and which tradesperson
Replacing lead pipes is work for a plumber or an accredited installation company: the new pipe is laid in copper or plastic, the old one is removed as far as possible and the installation is pressure-tested for leaks and thoroughly flushed. Ask for an installer who is registered in the Handelsregister (Trade Register) and preferably accredited through an industry recognition scheme; what else to look out for is set out in How to recognise a reliable plumber. If you like, have a check measurement carried out after the work, especially if there are young children in the house.
Most of the work is not in the pipe itself, but in opening up and making good the walls, floors and ceilings the pipe runs through. That is why it makes sense to combine the replacement with a kitchen or bathroom renovation, a new floor or a larger renovation by a contractor: the walls are open anyway and the breaking-out and making-good work only has to be done once. Explicitly include the replacement of all lead pipework, including old branches and the pipe in the crawl space, in the quote, so that it is not only the visible section that gets replaced. Also have old taps and couplings with lead-containing solder removed as part of the job, and flush new pipes thoroughly every day for the first few months, because new pipe material can also release some metal for a while.
If you are buying a home built before 1960, ask the building surveyor to look specifically for lead pipes and factor the replacement into your negotiation or renovation budget. If you are selling, you are obliged to disclose known defects. In both cases a pipe inspection is cheaper than the uncertainty.