BOILED WATER ADVISORY IN GLASGOW
August 4, 2002
AP/PA News
LONDON -- About 140,000 people in the Scottish city of Glasgow were,
according to this story, told Saturday to boil their tap water after recent
flooding apparently contaminated the water supply.
The stories say that health officials issued the warning and distributed
bottled water when tests showed high levels of the intestinal parasite
cryptosporidium in the city's water supply.
Scottish Water told residents to boil all tap water for drinking, cooking,
brushing teeth and bathing babies.
A Scottish Water spokesman said recent heavy rains and flooding probably
washed animal feces from nearby fields into the water supply.
The spokesman said there had been no increase in the number of infections
since the high levels were discovered.

In a later story, UK water bosses today denied they had kept 140,000 people
in the dark for more than 24 hours about the discovery of a parasite in the
supplies.
 Scottish Water said its staff had acted "with the utmost caution" not to
alarm people living in a number of areas in Glasgow where water supplies
have been affected by the cryptosporidium parasite.
 The Scottish National Party (SNP) said it demanded answers from the water
company over the time it took to inform the public of the outbreak.
 A spokeswoman for Scottish Water said fears were raised on Friday when high
levels of the parasite were found in tests taken from the supply the
previous day.