The report was the first from the water watchdog

The findings come in the first assessment from the new drinking water quality regulator.

Tim Hooton blamed last year's bad weather for many of the problems but said record investment would make water treatment systems more robust.

He said Scottish water was safe and clean and just as good as anything bottled, if not better most of the time.

Of almost 150,000 tap water samples taken in 2002, some 1,076 - 0.72%, or one glass in every 140 - failed to meet strict quality criteria.

I am pleased to note that the overall number of samples taken from customers' taps that met the quality standards continued to improve in 2002 Tim Hooton

The results showed a slight improvement on the previous year, when 0.81% of the samples fell below the official standard.

But 2002 figures also showed a rise in the number of failures due to microbiological bugs being found in water samples.

In 2002 there were 204 below-standard samples due to coliforms, or non-harmful bugs, compared with 158 in 2001.

The number of failures for faecal coliforms, which can be harmful, went up from 23 to 30.

Mr Hooton, who was appointed as Scotland's water watchdog last year, said quality was likely to continue improving as a result of �1.8bn investment from public water body, Scottish Water.

Concern over failures

He said: "I am pleased to note that the overall number of samples taken from customers' taps that met the quality standards continued to improve in 2002.

"Essentially in this day and age to have a system which goes wrong every time a gale or wind blows or a drop of rain falls is completely unacceptable and that's why there's an investment programme."

Environment Minister Ross Finnie said: "The improvement in drinking water quality is good news for Scotland.

"However 0.72% of samples failing is not good enough and the rise in coliform failures is of concern."