most places around here have private water, which means a borehole/well.
a friend of mine had nothing but trouble with his. he was quoted £12k to be put on to mains water when he bought the farm but chose to renew the well and be self-sufficient. but after 10yrs, he has spent much more on the well, than the initial £12k. i think this was mainly due to the expensive new system that was fitted wrong and has always played up. its hard to fix it when its all been buried again, and being without water is a nightmare when you have livestock. even now this chap buys bottled water for drinking as his water has a red colour to it.
another friend was wanting to build a new well and had the man out who can tell where the natural water supply is (yes - they really use the metal stick thingys) but his natural supply was too close to the neighbours soakaways. you can never be sure where the neighbours soakaways are so beware - our neighbours - who are v close - have just found a second septic tank they never knew they had, and the soakaway isnt marked on any plans but is right next to our house , in our field. so in theory, we could have build a well in that area thinking it was clean.