The water company’s water supply general manager Nigel Martin did not explain the cause of the water quality concern in a statement, saying only that the company had performed a test in which “a water sample didn’t meet our standard”. The boil water notice was introduced as a precautionary measure.
Wessex Water said that “at no point” was the water quality issue linked to the cryptosporidium parasite which recently dogged United Utilities (UU) for almost a month, at an estimated cost as high as £20 million.
Martin added that the company “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.
“All customers have been notified that they will receive compensation in due course. I would like to thank customers for their cooperation and apologise for the inconvenience caused.”
Wessex Water provided free bottled water to customers on a daily basis while the company carried out a detailed investigation to determine the issue.
The boil notice comes just days after UU finally lifted its Lancashire boil notice, the scale of which dwarfs Wessex Water’s relatively limited water quality issues.
UU’s boil notice saw 300,000 homes affected, is estimated to cost the company at least £20 million in compensation claims alone and has caused a multi-million pound maintenance project to be postponed by a year just two weeks before work was due to start.