A Comprehensive Guide to Boil Order in North Yorkshire and the Reasons Behind it

The recent local news from the UK’s North Yorkshire area reported an immediate ‘no drinking’ advisory given for tap water in some places of the county. This extremely serious warning affected almost 200 postcodes leading to the great concern and the stoppage of activities among the local residents. In particular, the warning covered the following towns: High Bentham, Low Bentham, and Burton in Lonsdale.

The reason why the warning was so dramatic was significant increase in bacteria counts per 100ml of water. The coliform group of bacteria was the one reported. The previous sentence is about the words of the lab test, which can be taken as a textual reference. These are primarily the bacteria, which are present in fecal material, hums, and the gut of animals. There were also reports of the contamination as “faecal bacteria”.

What Can Bacterial Infection Cause?

Coliform bacteria are the signs of dangerous pathogens that can come from the feces of humans or animals. Though the whole coliform group of bacteria is not harmful, the fact of their presence indicates that wastewater was introduced into the source, which in turn is contaminated and may cover dangerous droppings of the germs.

In addition, the reports talk about the impacts on the health that the polluted water may cause. According to one of the sources, Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC), one of the coliform bacteria in some cases, can bring about very severe sickness.

The symptoms of STEC can lead to a hemolytic uremic syndrome, which is known to be a rare but dangerous condition leading to kidney failure. Moreover, adults have been known to develop a thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura, a rare life-threatening blood clotting disorder. Yorkshire Water directed anyone who felt sick after the event to contact their GP and inform him about the “boil notice”.

General information from the CDC about germs that can contaminate tap water identifies several pathogens that may spread the disease, usually if the water is polluted with the contaminated water by means of sewage overflows, failing sewage, dirty runoff, or farm runoff. The following are the ways:

Campylobacter
Norovirus
Salmonella
Shigella

Drastic “Do Not Drink” and “Boil” Instruction

The warning delivered to the public was to focus on urban residents with the news of the major presence of toxic bacteria in the water supply, and for this, the fastest reaction was to boil the water. This was done merely to be sure that the hot water would clean out even the smallest of the bacteria that were attacking the bodies of the people.

In this case, the inhabitants were reminded to boil the water for the following purposes:
Drinking
Brushing teeth
Preparation of foods eaten uncooked
Washing salad

Water that is boiled is the one that is according to CDC one of the best methods to kill germs in water. Their directions include boiling water for 1 minute and, if the elevation is over 6,500 feet, boiling for 3 minutes.

It was also mentioned by Yorkshire Water that boiling water should be the only proof needed to make the water safe for drinking by eliminating the bad organisms. So, that is why boiling water seems to be a better and faster alternative to get assured of the safe water.

Resident reaction to the boil order was huge. For instance, care manager noticed that it was very difficult to take care of elderly people with dementia as they did not realize the warning sign of an emergency and it was difficult to get bottled water as shops ran out of stock. Some centers also gave away bottled water to those unable to boil water at home.

The affected customers have gotten the messages from the company hand-delivered about the situation with the water that should be boiled before use.

Potential Causes
Even though the sources cannot without a doubt confirm the exact reason for contamination, the experts have still given some of the potential causes. Among them, it was mentioned by the experts that the UK has had very warm weather recently, with the temperatures climbing up to 29°C (84°F), and that might be one of the causes. Another contributing factor to the pollution might have been the lack of rain which made water supply companies run out of water and/or use reservoirs or groundwater as an alternative, which usually is not the case and this action might have caused the increase of contamination.

It has also been stated by some experts that the same problems that create such types of contamination are visible in all the parts of the country illustrating that this is not a case only locally in North Yorkshire.

Resolution

Thankfully, the critical boil water notice was retracted in a while. Yorkshire Water’s retraction of the alert gave residents of High Bentham, Low Bentham, and Lonsdale the green light to use their tap water as usual.

An apologetic representative of Yorkshire Water expressed his apology to everyone affected by the event and appreciated their compliance and patience.

This episode brings home the point that the quality of water supply is an important consideration and the vulnerabilities in the system could be made worse by environmental conditions such as the weather. It also points to the difficulties experienced by whole communities when such urgent public health warnings are given.