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| PRESS RELEASE - November 2006 Water company faces legal action over pollution Pictons are to help issue proceedings against a water company, which had already been told to improve the standard of its drinking water after 144 people reported falling ill last December. In all 70,000 households were advised to boil their water or drink bottled supplies. Now, lawyers acting for 31 of those taken ill are to begin legal proceedings against Dwr Cymru Welsh Water, after waiting a year for answers to questions about the incident without adequate response. Meanwhile, Public Health of Wales have been investigating the circumstances, with a possible view to prosecution if they find the water company has been negligent. Last December people in the Caernarfon area began to fall ill with a stomach bug, which was eventually traced back to pollution at a water treatment works at the Cwellyn reservoir. Later it was revealed that the reservoir had already been criticised twice before during 2004 for failing industry standards. The cause of the outbreak has been analysed as cryptosporidium, which is most commonly incurred as a result of infection by human faeces. Some of those most seriously affected by the pollution decided to pursue legal claims against the water company. Pictons, who specialise in dealing with public health issues, are to issue proceedings as a test case on behalf of Daniel Evans of Caernarfon. He is one of their 31 clients, all of whom are from the Caernarfon area. Four of them, like Mr Evans, are still ill as a result of the poisoning. The lawyer leading the case is one of Pictons' personal injury specialists, Mike Neale, who explains: 'There is a protocol by which these kinds of cases are pursued in law, to try and make them go as smoothly as possible. Accordingly we wrote both to Welsh Water and the Drinking Water Inspectorate almost a year ago. However, none of the questions to which we need answers has yet been answered, hence our decision to issue proceedings on behalf of Mr Evans as a test case. Given the pain and inconvenience which the outbreak caused to so many people, this delay by Welsh Water in addressing the problem seems to us to show an alarming disregard for the company's customers and to their health. In the circumstances, therefore, we have no option but to press ahead with legal action. 'I have to say, however, that the situation has been further complicated by the delay by Public Health of Wales in publishing their report and the apparent problems they have in translating it. The Drinking Water Inspectorate are also looking into the incident and are due to report. Their decision was promised in the late summer'. Legal proceedings will be issued shortly asking the court to order Welsh Water to disclose documents in their possession which, according to Pictons, are central to the reasons for the outbreak.
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