Islanders told not to drink contaminated tap water

ABOUT 450 households and businesses in part of North Uist have been told not to drink or cook with tap water until further notice, after higher than usual levels of aluminium were found in a treatment works.

The advice was issued by an incident management team, chaired by the Dr Ken Oates, consultant in public health medicine at NHS Highland, after consistently raised aluminium levels were detected at the Bayhead Water Treatment Works, which supplies the area.

The areas affected are from Scolpaig to Grimsay on the west coast of North Uist. Water supplied by the other treatment works at Lochmaddy and Benbecula are not affected.

Dr Oates said: “We appreciate the inconvenience this advice will bring to people and businesses in the affected areas, but at all times our priority has to be the protection of public health. “We would like to emphasise that this is a precautionary measure and that there is no evidence that anyone has consumed water which may have caused them adverse health effects due to the consumption of aluminium.”

Scottish Water is arranging supplies of bottled water to the areas affected.