‘STRESSED’ villagers near Rugby were left without running water for two days – and have been without clean tap water for over a week – due to an as-yet-unidentified contamination.
Nearly 90 households in Willey, Wibtoft and the surrounding area were told to start boiling their water before drinking it or preparing food on Thursday (August 8).
Severn Trent Water discovered the problem following routine testing – and cut off the water altogether from Monday (August 12) to Wednesday (August 14) to disinfect pipes.
Although the company delivered bottled water to residents, they were still unable to flush toilets, use dishwashers or wash their clothes.
And while the water is now back on, villagers are still unable to bathe young children for fear they might swallow bathwater.
Wibtoft resident Sarah Filippardos told The Observer it had been a ‘horrendous’ experience.
She said: “It’s extremely stressful – not only because I can’t do any washing or clean my plates.
“We’re all trying to cut down on using plastic, and suddenly we’ve got all these half-litre bottles being delivered to us which we’re supposed to use to cook, drink and so on.”
But her main concern was what was in the water.
“We haven’t been told what the contamination is, or what the risk to our health is. How long was this going on before they found a fault? What have I actually ingested?
“I’ve got a nine-year-old son. We’ve got old people in the village who have had tummy upsets in the last couple of weeks.
“Why aren’t we getting better information?”
A Severn Trent spokesman said: “We discovered an issue at a local property which unintentionally affected our water, meaning it wasn’t to our normal high standards.
“The process of disinfecting the pipes thoroughly before bringing them back into service has proved to be more complicated than we would have hoped.
“We believe everything will return to normal by the weekend and we will be compensating all those affected for the inconvenience.
“We’d like to apologise to everyone who’s been affected and to thank them for their patience.”
The water company also told Public Health England (PHE) that residents in two properties reported stomach problems and they were advised to see their GPs – but there was no evidence to link their illness to the water supply.
A PHE spokeswoman added: “We understand from Severn Trent that investigations are ongoing to discover the source of the problem and the organisms involved.
“They took the decision, in consultation with PHE, to advise residents to boil the water which would kill off any bacteria present, while they wait for laboratory results.
“There is no risk to health if residents follow the advice provided by Severn Trent.”
