Thousands of individuals in Greater Manchester were told to boil their tap water until further notice last week, after untreated water entered the pipe network.

A statement was issued by water provider United Utilities on Sunday, advising residents of 17,000 properties in Tameside, Saddleworth and Greenfield that they needed to boil their tap water before using it for drinking, personal hygiene or food preparation.

According to a spokesperson from the firm, the overnight technical fault at a treatment works in Buckton Castle that caused the problem had already been attended to, but that some water, “not treated to the usual high standards”, had entered the local pipe network.

“You can continue to use tap water for general domestic purposes such as bathing and flushing toilets,” the statement read. “If your water looks dirty or cloudy, we would recommend to wait until the water has cleared before washing clothes.”

The company issued apologies to its customers and stated that it hoped to lift the precautionary advice as soon as possible.

“We are proactively contacting vulnerable customers in the area to make sure they have adequate support and we would also ask all customers to tell friends, family and neighbours who they know live in these areas and could be affected,” read the statement from the firm.

“Customers will receive compensation automatically and this will be paid proactively in the next five working days, so there is no need to contact us about that.”

This is not the first time the company, which is the UK’s largest listed water company, has issued such a precautionary statement; in August 2015, United Utilities issued a similar warning to 300,000 households in Lancashire to boil their water after routine tests found traces of the microbial parasite cryptosporidium at a treatment works outside Preston.

The Drinking Water Inspectorate is investigating the source of the contamination.