Poison Water

As it happened, I was on holiday staying with an aunt in Delabole at the time, and I always drink quite a lot of water plus tea etc.

I came out top to toe in a rash, which at the time pharmacist or doctor couldn’t explain, and it wasn’t for a time before we were made aware of the incident.

Whether it was coincidence or not I have no idea - but the rash which took a while to go has never recurred. Whether any long term damage has occurred Alzheimer’s has been mentioned only time will tell and in any case, causation will be impossible to prove.

I remember being horrified at the events. What I, and most of the rest of the population, thought was the covering up and lack of acceptance of responsibility.

The mass poisoning of so very many people is disgraceful - bigger than the blood, bigger than Grenfell, bigger than the Post Office scandals!

How strange Whitewavemark2
I too was on holiday in a village just outside Camelford the week it happened.We were staying in a cottage there, and one morning the water from the bathroom basin tap was really foul when we were brushing our teeth, we quickly spat it out.As for drinking tea! Mum did boil some in the kettle thinking that it would be fine but the first mouthful of tea was also spat out by us all as undrinkable.
We all refused to bath or shower in it but Mum did have a shower and it turned her highlighted streaks green!! After that we just used bottled water and didn’t bathe, fortunately we only had a few more days left of our holiday.The owners of our holiday cottage came and apologised but of course it wasn’t their fault.
The whole thing was handled so badly by the water board there.Accidents do happen but it’s how things are handled afterwards that counts.
Incidentally, after Mum showered in the water, apart from green streaks in her hair, her skin suffered no reaction.
Because the water tasted so foul I can’t understand why anyone went on drinking it.

Just remembered that the village was called Slaughterbridge which Dad having a black sense of humour, said we should have known something would happen to us.

We were living in the Truro area at the time so, although we heard about it, we had no idea how awful the whole thing was. The thing that really came over in the documentary was the way they happily covered up anything that might affect the sale of the water companies.

In Brixham it was cryptosporidium, everyone in the affected areas had to use bottled water, some were very ill. At least one person with medical issues was fobbed off when they first suspected something and the water company didn't agree but she was proven right.

We were on holiday there round about that time and I insisted that we all drank bottled water. My husband, as per usual, thought I was being silly. I hadn’t realised that the Conservatives were also planning to privatise the tube but it didn’t happen because Blair won the election. I think the country is still suffering from all of those privatisations.

We need to campaign for the water regulator to do his job, not just issue fines which come out of OUR water rates.

We need to be able to trust our dinking water, because people cannot afford to buy bottled. And because of what we are paying for it

As ever they put money before people and in my opinion they should have never allowed the water to be privatised. As a public company and used throughout the country, neighbouring areas could help each other out in such things as drought areas etc, and they had no reason to leave things undone, such as these leaks everywhere which now get left as they try to blame their customers instead of looking to their own mismanagement. Water should be renationalised and at the same time I think we should have the equivalent of the prison visitors, who can call in at any time and check things out.
If we had qualified people who could call in and check water treatment quality etc at any time, then they could not hide urgent maintenance requirements, or mistakes they have made. We are all human and of course mistakes can be made, although properly trained staff and clear directions to refer to should make it unlikely to happen. But there should be a statutory law which makes them declare problems within 12 hours and not let them get away with risking peoples health and finger crossing in the hopes that they will get away with it. Surely at the least any government can see that certainty of safeness of water is of the highest importance and that in the end the cost in hospitals and doctors , especially where they have not declared what has happened, leaving doctors tohave to use expensive tests to find out what the problem is, and risking individuals lives, especially those who are on medication for chronic illness, where keeping the balance and keeping well is difficult as it is. something like this can affect not just the actual water problems but cause further difficulties with the other causes and can take weeks to get back to an even keel.

Now we even have foreign companies being in charge of some of our water areas.We are paying the earth for poor quality service and with the basic need for water, there needs to be a great change for the better. It is good that we have had people getting together to test the rivers and streams for pollution. we now obviously need daily testing of water by non involved parties to be sure it is safe to drink. Time for a change as soon as possible

It was an eye-opener about those times when everything was changing, and we began the pursuit of the God money.

Now we are reaping the rewards of the shortsighted greed and gain...

I am surprised Michael Howard agreed to appear- his complacency in the face of guilt was staggering.

Why anyone would vote Tory completely baffles me, privatisation of public utilities has been an unmitigated disaster...

What annoys me about these terrible incidents the most.

Is that peole in charge, little more than criminals and aresholes, are very rarely taken to account. And seemingly never prosecuted

They also massive pay offs. Very genrous pensions and a nice life

Instead of a long term prison sentence.

Bring back the pillory, the stocks and public flogging?

Ooooh yes- who would be first on the list?

Mine- Boris Johnson. Would love to throw some rotten lettuce at him. Years ago someone send me a life sized cardboard cut out of him as a joke- on Bonfire Night we burned it! Very cathartic and that was even before he was PM!