Wessex Water lifts boil notice
14 Sep 2015
Wessex Water has lifted a ’boil water’ notice affecting 250 of its customers in the Somerset area.
On Tuesday last week, the water company asked the customers to boil their water before using it for drinking, washing food, cooking, cleaning teeth and medical purposes.
The boil notice was lifted on Friday and all affected customers will receive compensation, the company said.
We have carried out extensive tests and they all show that the quality of the water is excellent and there is now no need to boil it.
Nigel Martin, Wessex Water’s water supply general manager
”We have carried out extensive tests and they all show that the quality of the water is excellent and there is now no need to boil it,” said Nigel Martin, water supply general manager at Wessex Water.
Wessex Water said it imposed the notice last week as a precautionary measure after it found the water supply was “not of its usual standard”.
It said the problem was not related to that recently experienced by United Utilities, which found small traces of a microscopic parasite called cryptosporidium in the water last month following routine tests at its water treatment works in Preston.
United Utilities deployed ultraviolet rigs to help kill off the bug, and the company is expected to face a £15 million bill to compensate those affected.
Last week, Wessex Water said it had been taking water samples in the area affected by its ’boil water’ notice, and had identified a problem at a reservoir, which had been drained, cleaned and refilled.
”We take around 250,000 drinking water tests every year and sophisticated laboratory technology is used to analyse samples to continuously monitor water quality,” Wessex Water said.
”At no point was the parasite cryptosporidium found in water samples, which was the issue that affected thousands of homes in the Lancashire area last month.”
