Tenbury Wells pipe burst: 'Water is safe to drink again'
Water in a town close to the Shropshire border has been deemed safe to drink again.
Severn Trent Water said test results have come on water in Tenbury Wells and it is safe again.
Sarah-Jayne O'Kane, Severn Trent spokeswoman, said: "We’d like to say a huge thank you to the local people for being so patient and understanding, and again we’re really sorry for the inconvenience this will have caused.
"We’ve done extensive sampling and testing over the last two days and our labs have, this afternoon, confirmed that the results are good and that the water quality is now back to normal and safe to drink.
"If you are using your water for the first time since the Do Not Drink notice, you should run your cold water tap at full flow for five minutes, but after that it’s fine to use.
"If you have a hot water tank, this may have stored poor quality water, so you will need to run your hot water taps for five minutes too."
The problem was caused by a burst pipe near Burford.
Ms O'Kane added: "We believe a small amount of floodwater may have got back into the pipe which meant we couldn't guarantee the quality of the water.
"Until we were sure that the water was safe, we asked people not to drink the water.
"We've had about 150 volunteers from across the company helping to hand out water, including some of our teams from North Wales, and in total, we reckon we've handed out, or currently have on site, a million litres of bottled water, and some of that has come from other water companies who've been fantastic in helping us out.
"We've had some great support from local people and from the Salvation Army, who have been offering us great support in Tenbury Wells.
"We've also been working closely with the Local Resilience Forum, which includes local councils and Public Health England, and have been delivering bottled water to local schools to help them stay open.
"On top of that, we've been checking on priority customers who might not be able to get out or who need water for medical reasons, and with organisations like care homes to make sure they have everything they need.
"We've been hand delivering bottles to them and dealing with other requests as and when we got them, and we had eight couriers in the area reacting to requests.
"We've had word from the local councils that they'll be happy to take any additional recycling you might have because of the bottled water and you should just put everything out as you would do normally.
"We will be paying compensation to all customers advised not to drink their water. This will be credited automatically so customers don’t need to do anything in order to receive this payment.
"So once again, we’d just like to say how sorry we are that this has happened and also to thank everyone for their support, good humour and for the food they've been bringing to our teams on the ground."
