Croydon MP Steve Reed has today hit out at the monopoly water companies after reports of sickness among people in south London which has prompted Thames Water to test its supplies for possible contamination.
“Our water industry is broken,” said Reed, Labour’s environment spokesperson. “Just days ago, a parasite outbreak was making people sick in Devon. Now Beckenham’s drinking water may not be safe to drink.”
Cryptosporidium was found in the water supply in Brixham 10 days ago, forcing South West Water to tell 17,000 households and businesses in the area not to use their tap water for drinking without boiling and cooling it first.
Beckenham residents struck by a stomach bug, The Guardian reports, include “a four-year-old boy suffering days of vomiting and an adult woman who was so unwell she went to hospital with stomach pain, vomiting and dehydration”.
Fight them on the beaches: Steve Reed and Labour won’t renationalise the failing monopoly water companies
The paper reports: “Whole families have reported becoming unwell, and fear it may be caused by a bug in the water.
“After reporting the issue to Thames Water, people who have been unwell said technicians came to take samples of their tap water.
“Thames Water confirmed its technicians collected samples, which have been sent for laboratory analysis.”
By lunchtime today, Thames Water was saying that no contamination had been discovered in its testing.
“Our technicians collected samples from a property in the area on Tuesday 22 May following customers contacting the business,” a spokesperson said.
“Initial on-site testing carried out by our accredited technician did not indicate an aesthetic issue with the water, further samples were also collected for laboratory analysis and results showed no concerns.
“Customers can find information about their water supply by inputting their postcode on our website. Should anyone be concerned about their tap water, we’d encourage them to contact us.”
Today, a spokesperson for Thames Water said: “We take the quality of our water extremely seriously – it is the highest quality drinking water in the world – and since 2010 more than 99.95% of tests taken from customers’ taps met the standard required by UK and European legislation.
“Every year, we carry out more than 500,000 tests, taking samples from source to tap.”
In Devon, 2,500 properties remain under “boil tap water notices” as the system continues to be flushed, and there has been no date given to those properties for when the water will be safe to drink again.
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