Since yesterday (i.e. since Thursday, 21 May 2009), Giessen's drinking water has been chlorinated, as reported in a press release by Stadtwerke Giessen AG (SWG) in coordination with Giessen's public health department. The reason for this is bacterial contamination of the drinking water. This is the result of a routine examination of the water.
Affected areas
The entire Giessen water network is affected, with the exception of the districts of Kleinlinden, Lützellinden Allendorf and Rödgen, which are supplied with drinking water from the Zweckverband Mittelhessische Wasserwerke and not from the Queckborn waterworks. The Grünberg districts of Kernstadt, Göbelnrod, Queckborn and Harbach as well as the Fernwald district of Annerod are also affected. In Annerod, the municipality had already chlorinated the drinking water throughout the past few days due to microbial contamination and issued a recommendation to boil the water. SWG has stopped supplying water to the municipality of Buseck, which is currently only supplied from municipal sources.
Boil drinking water
Stadtwerke Gießen AG recommends that customers in the affected areas boil drinking water that is used for drinking, brushing teeth, preparing food or cleaning objects used to produce and process food.
Matthias Acker, deputy company spokesman for SWG: "We recommend that our customers boil their drinking water before use because the chlorine takes around two to three days to spread throughout the entire pipe network. There is no reason to panic."
Type of contamination
The germs found are Escherichia coli (E. coli). This is a normal intestinal inhabitant of humans and warm-blooded animals. As a rule, E. coli is not a pathogen, but is an indicator that pathogens are to be expected in the water.
22.05.2009