Water Scare Over

A water scare affecting Findhorn, Kinloss and Burghead is over.

Residents and businesses in the town were told on Wednesday to boil any water they were going to drink or use for cooking, making babies’ feeds, brushing teeth or serving to pets after small amounts of the E-coli bacteria - which can cause stomach upsets - were found following tests of the supply by Scottish Water.

But new tests late last night (Thursday, August 4) revealed "normal" results and the water board have now lifted the warning.

"My sincere thanks to our customers who were affected. It was an unusual event and we're very sorry for the disruption," said Derek Ogilvie, Scottish Water operations manager. "We'll continue to investigate the circumstances."

Dr Diana Webster, NHS Grampian's consultant in public health medicine, said: "The boil advice was issued as a precaution. We can see from the latest samples the supply is clear, so the public can resume using their water as normal. We have had no reports of any illness related to this event."

Many people have criticised the way the events were handled by Scottish Water. A full story will appear in the next edition of the 'Gazette'.