I am writing to confirm that we are lifting with immediate effect the precautionary ‘boil water’ notice that has been in place for customers in Blaenrhondda, Blaencwm, Tynewydd, Treherbert, Treorchy, Cwm-parc, Ton Pentre, Gelli, parts of Pentre, parts of Tonypandy and parts of Ystrad.
This means that customers in these areas do not need to boil their drinking water anymore.
I appreciate that the ‘boil water’ notice over the last two weeks has had a significant impact on both customers and businesses across several communities in Rhondda Cynon Taf. For this, we are truly sorry. While the decision to introduce the ‘boil water’ notice was precautionary, this was not taken lightly, nothing matters more to us than public health and providing the best possible drinking water to our customers. We have continued to take samples and test the drinking water quality throughout the period and can confirm that these tests show there is no longer a need to continue to boil your drinking water.
After the flooding experienced at Tynywaun Water Treatment Works in Treherbert, due to Storm Bert, we have worked day and night since 24th November to put things right – work that under normal circumstances would have taken far longer to complete. This has involved undertaking extensive clearing work on site and taking measures to protect the drinking water storage tanks from such extreme events in future. Much of this work has been dependent on dry weather to allow to successfully install the waterproof membrane around the tanks. We’d like to thank all our customers for their patience and for bearing with us during this time. We would also like to thank customers for the generosity they’ve shown to our staff and contractors working on site and at the bottled water stations – the response has been truly humbling.
During this incident, we’ve remained committed to providing support for customers and businesses. This is why we confirmed quickly that each household will receive a total goodwill payment of £250 and each business will receive £500. We gave out water at three bottled water collection stations and hand delivered bottled water directly to customer homes and schools. With all customers now able to drink their water as normal, the bottled water stations and home deliveries will now stop. We appreciate the support and gratitude shown by customers to our colleagues who have been working in these communities over the past 2 weeks.
However, we also know that we can always do things to improve how we manage this type of incident. So, over the next few weeks we will be contacting a selection of customers impacted so that we can learn lessons which will inform how we deal with these large-scale incidents in future.
Thank you also to Rhondda Cynon Taf Council and all the elected representatives for their assistance over this period.
Finally, I would like to apologise again for the inconvenience this has caused and thank you again for patience and for working with us.
Yours sincerely
Peter Perry
Chief Executive, Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water