Gippsland › Latest news › South Gippsland Local News

Alert for Poowong, Loch, and Nyora residents to boil drinking water as precaution against possible contamination

Emergency alert: Boil water in Poowong, Loch, Nyora. Contamination reported. Boil drinking water, cool, store in clean containers.

By news@gippsland - 4th January 2024 - Back to News

Boil Water Advisory for Poowong, Loch and Nyora. As a precaution, South Gippsland Water in consultation with the Department of Health advises that customers in Poowong, Loch and Nyora should boil drinking water until further notice. A map of the affected area is available at South Gippsland Water website. This advice has been issued following reported contaminated water in the Poowong, Loch and Nyora water supply system. Customers should bring water to a rolling boil by heating it until a continuous and rapid stream of air-bubbles is produced from the bottom of a pan or kettle.

Boiling is a very simple method of water disinfection. Heating water to a high temperature kills most of the pathogenic organisms, particularly viruses and bacteria causing waterborne diseases

Water usage guidelines

Electric kettles/jugs with automatic cut-off switches are suitable for producing boiled water. Variable temperature kettles should be set to boil. Allow boiled water to cool before using it. Cooled, boiled water may be stored in clean closed containers for later use. Customers should boil all water used for:

• Drinking and preparing beverages
• Brushing teeth, gargling and cleaning/soaking dentures
• Washing and preparing food
• Preparing baby formula
• Making ice

Unboiled water can be used for:

• Showering and bathing (but residents should avoid swallowing water. As a precaution, babies and young children should be sponge-bathed)
• Washing dishes by hand or in a dishwasher providing dishes are air-dried before being used after washing

South Gippsland Water is working closely with the Department of Health to identify conditions that will enable the boil water advice to be rescinded. To correct the problem, South Gippsland Water is investigating the source of the reported contaminated water.

Water advisory update

It is expected that this will take two to three days however the advisory will be in effect until South Gippsland Water and the Department of Health are confident that there is no longer a public health concern.

As an alternative to boiling water, please take your own clean containers to one of South Gippsland Water's tanker locations listed below and fill up there with safe drinking water. The tankers will be staffed from 6:00am to 12 midnight.

Tankers will be at the Poowong Recreation Reserve, Nyora Recreation Reserve and Speight St in Loch from early morning on Thursday 4/1/24. For further questions, please contact the team at South Gippsland Water on 1300 851 636 or head to South Gippsland Water website.

Pictures from Wikipedia website.

Source: http://gippsland.com/

Published by: news@gippsland.com