Residents in the Derbyshire and Leicestershire regions in the UK were warned not to drink, bathe in or ‘wash their toilets’ with tap water recently when higher than normal chlorine levels were detected in a reservoir.
This affected in excess of 200 homes and 3,700 customers across the counties, and this resulted in locals in Derbyshire and Leicestershire panicking and clearing the local supermarkets and convenience stores of bottled water, fearing they may not have access to water for days.
While the water company refused to disclose the exact levels of chlorine in the water servicing the DE11, DE65 and DE73 areas of Derbyshire and other areas, or how the problem started in the Castle Donington reservoir, it is believed to be abnormally high.
According to Severn Trent spokesman Jonathan Smith, “Don’t drink it, don’t wash with it, don’t even brush your toilet with it. There is more chlorine than there should be in the water… We can’t give you the levels that are in the water. We don’t know if the level will be high enough that it will do damage to your skin.â€
While chlorine is used to sanitise the water that comes out of our taps, only up to 0.7mg of chlorine per 1litre of water is considered safe, and although the levels were not disclosed, they are believed to have been far higher than this for the water company to have made such drastic statements.
What got to most residents is the lack of information given out to them. By the time mother-of-two, Sarah Yarnall and her partner Lee Shakespeare found out about the water problem, for instance, their local Tesco and ASDA had already sold out of water, and they had to rely on family members in other area to put their tap water into bottles for them. One pregnant mother was concerned whether the fact that she had been drinking the water would affect her pregnancy.
According to Severn Water, most of the customers already have access to normal water again but some properties are still affected. The locals however are not that convinced, and continued to rush to secure bottled water for their young children and elderly relatives who suffer the most from dehydration.
One sure way to ensure that this never happens to you is by investing in a water cooler fitted with a good filter, such as the mains water coolers offered by Living-Water, London’s favourite water company, as the filter will ensure that you have absolutely pure drinking water.
