The pipes in question were hot water pipes, used for district heating. I think most (probably every) house had had running cold water for decades at this point.
In contrast in the USA 7% of households were missing any plumbing in 1970.
Iceland was late industrializing and getting basic infrastructure. But so were other colonies. In 1918 Iceland stopped being a colony and by the 1950s it had pretty much caught on (with the major exceptions of road and rail networks).
So they got a freshwater connection to the mainland in 1968, and they do have some aquifers on the island (just really unreliable). I do know that they had problems with water prior to the main land connection, but I don’t know if most houses had plumbing connected to the unreliable aquifers prior to 1986.
In contrast in the USA 7% of households were missing any plumbing in 1970.
Iceland was late industrializing and getting basic infrastructure. But so were other colonies. In 1918 Iceland stopped being a colony and by the 1950s it had pretty much caught on (with the major exceptions of road and rail networks).