On Sunday morning, in a small area of Silves, the water from the taps started to come out red. The council has said has the problem is due to the presence of an agent that has not yet been possible to identify, and turned off the supply as a precautionar measure, while it investigates.
See the video on SIC News here.
“It looks like wine”, described Generoso Guerreiro, inhabitant of the small area affected, Vale de Lousa, in Silves. The area is now deprived of water from the public network after early Sunday morning it started to come out of the taps with a reddish color.
The situation worried the households affected who immediately alerted the municipality, so that it could take steps to discover the reason for the unusual color.
“In principle, it is harmless to health but, evidently, it cannot be consumed because it has altered the water” , said Rui Santos, an employee of the Municipality of Silves.
Samples were collected for analysis, with preliminary results pointing to a neutral pH, but there is a salt that has not yet been possible to identify.
“We suspect that a foreign agent has entered the network, the laboratory that analyzes the network itself cannot identify it because it is an agent that causes the water to colour, which is not normal”, says Rui Santos.
The purge carried out by the municipality had an effect and the reddish color stopped reaching the dwellings, but only for a short time. Tuesday morning, the residents of Vale de Lousas faced the same problem again, which led to the water being shut off once more.
Around 30 homes are now without mains water , due to this situation that is described by Rui Santos as “bizarre” and “completely abnormal”.
The Municipality is already investigating the origin of the problem, but until then, the water will not flow from the taps to the population in the affected area.
Source https://postal.pt/
