News

Dysentery linked to water cut-offs

Big rises in the number of notified cases of dysentery and hepatitis A are causing widespread concern, amid mounting evidence of a link with domestic water disconnections.

Between 1988 and 1991 the number of cases of dysentery trebled from 3,692 to 9,935. Hepatitis cases rose from 3,379 in 1987 to 9,020 in 1992. Both diseases are easily spread when hygeine is poor, especially among children.

Over the same period, there was a persistent upward trend in water disconnections, with almost 22,000 households disconnected last year, according to official figures published in May by the water industry’s regulatory body Ofwat. While in areas served by some water companies the rate of disconnections has fallen, in others - notably North Surrey, Portsmouth and Thames - there have greater than ten-fold rises.

New evidence from the West Midlands points to a ‘very significant’ link between water disconnection and risk of disease outbreaks. Dr John Middleton, director of public health at Sandwell Health Authority, compared the postcodes of people whose water was cut off with those of notified dysentery and hepatitis cases, and found a ‘strong correlation’.

Howard Price, assistant secretary at the Institution of Environmental Health Officers, has written to Secretary of State for the Environment Michael Howard, calling on the government to make it illegal for water companies to disconnect domestic customers for non-payment.

‘There is nothing inevitable about disconnection. It is a matter of commercial choice for the companies’, said Mr Price. ‘Houses lacking a drinking water supply are officially unfit for human habitation.’

The Institution argues that water companies have other means to obtain payments, without resorting to disconnection, and is giving its full support to the Private Member’s Bill introduced by Sheffield MP Helen Jackson, which would ban water disconnections. The bill is backed by over 200 MPs from all parties, and 70 voluntary groups and councils.

Public health workers point out that the water companies are not solely to blame for the rising level of water debt, since increases in Income Support and other benefits have not kept pace with rising water bills.

Dick Barbor-Might, secretary of the West Midlands branch of the Public Health Alliance, told healthmatters: ‘We are alarmed at the rise in overt water disconnection, but we are particularly concerned at the possibility of “hidden disconnections” in homes which have a prepayment meter installed. There have been cases where people have cut themselves off as a consequence of having a meter installed.’