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Water in Tenbury Wells is safe to drink again
Severn Trent has confirmed the water quality in Tenbury Wells, Worcestershire is now “back to normal and safe to drink” after fears a burst water pipe had contaminated the supply in the area.
The company has carried out “extensive sampling and testing” over two days and at around 2pm yesterday afternoon (2 October) its labs confirmed the water had returned to expected quality levels.
Customers in Tenbury Wells were advised not to use the tap water for drinking, preparing food or brushing teeth, while tests were being carried out.
Severn Trent apologised to customers affected by the problem, which was caused when a pipe burst near Burford at around 7pm on Friday (29 September).
The company said it believed a small amount of floodwater may have got back into the pipe and could not “guarantee the quality of the water”.
However, customers were advised the water could still be used for bathing, showering and flushing the toilet.
Around 150 Severn Trent volunteers, as well as people from the Salvation Army and other water companies handed out one million litres of bottled water to support affected customers.
In a video on the firm’s website to update customers in Tenbury Wells, Wayne Earp, incident controller at Severn Trent, said: “Your water is now back to its normal high quality standards.
“Over the past two days we’ve been able to bring water from a different area to your taps, so as long as you’ve been flushing your toilets and running your taps, there’s absolutely nothing to worry about.
“If you haven’t been using your tap then our advice is to run it for five minutes and then everything will be absolutely fine.”
He concluded: “So, just a huge final thank you, the community has been absolutely amazing, thank you so much and we do apologise this has happened.”
A statement on Severn Trent’s website, said: “We will be paying compensation to all customers advised not to drink their water. This will be credited automatically so customers don’t need to do anything in order to receive this payment.”
What happened:
- 2,000 customers were advised not to drink water
- More than 1 million of litres of bottled water were handed out to customers
- 150 Severn Trent volunteers helped hand out water
- More than 250 water samples were tested by scientists
- 13 tankers worked through the night to keep the supply going
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