United Utilities' boil water alert following the detection of the Cryptosporidium parasite in the company’s water network has now entered its fourth week - yesterday the company started the process to lift the boil water advice in some specific parts of Lancashire.
With immediate effect, customers in certain parts of Blackpool, Chorley and Preston can drink from the tap as normal and are no longer required to boil their water. However, the lifting of the boil water notice only applies in certain postcode areas - for all other customers, the boil water advice remains in place until further notice.
The start of the process to lift the boil notice in certain areas follows ongoing measures by United Utilities – a combination of flushing the water network, moving water from other parts of the network and installing UV light rigs to destroy the last remaining traces of the Cryptosporidium bug.
Customers in the areas where the boil notice has been lifted will separately receive a letter of confirmation in the post today.
United Utilities said it is in daily discussion with health and scientific experts to review the latest position and it may be possible to lift the boil water advice in some further parts of Lancashire over the coming week.
Gary Dixon, customer services director at United Utilities, said:
“We’re working tirelessly to ensure we can lift the boil notice for our customer as quickly as possible and we are grateful for their ongoing patience and understanding. We are hoping to lift further areas in the coming week but only when we are completely satisfied that the there is no risk to public health.”
Due to the early introduction of the boil water notice Public Health England says that there have been no confirmed cases of sickness linked to the water supply at this stage.
Customers are being asked visit the United Utilities website at or phone Freephone number 0800 912 7241 to check which postcodes have been lifted.
More than 14,000 people have now signed a petition calling for a parliamentary inquiry into how cryptosporidium got into Lancashire's drinking water and querying “ why there seems to be no contingency plans to deal with such a situation.”
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