Problems with San Miguel drinking water

THE drinking water in several urbanizations of San Miguel was declared unfit for human consumption. Here EWN reader, Carol Sear, tells her story.

MY husband and I moved to El Galan, San Miguel de Salinas seven years ago from Hertfordshire, completely ignorant of what we were letting ourselves in for.

In the first week it rained heavily, and then the water went off for no reason. There was probably a reason but we could never find out one. Within the first few months, the water was on and off constantly. We could never plan what to do and at what time of day because of this.

Nothing has changed really and when you ask the company reposnible for the water supply, ERNA, all the answer you ever get is “oh, we have had a burst pipe”. So, isolate it, says I. “oh, we can’t says ERNA”. The system is absolutely useless, and so is the water they supply us with.  Full of nitrates, salts, and goodness knows what else.

Totally unfit for human consumption. It was fine before the houses were built because all the water was supplied to orange groves. Glad I didn’t know where my oranges came from when in UK otherwise I wouldn’t have eaten one.

During this time I also suffered with a form of dermatitis and scurf on my scalp and had to have repeat prescriptions of special shampoo to help clear this up.

After a relatively short period of time when I stopped using the shampoo the irritation returned. This irritation has spread to other parts of the body causing discomfort.  During my visits back to the UK, if over a week, the irritation starts to reduce which only confirms to me that it is the water we are forced to use.

It is common knowledge that the water here is unfit for human consumption, and at times I ask myself why have houses been built here and humans been allowed to purchase them and are now being expected to suffer this type of service and use that water. Some of the blame has to go on the estate agents who sold the houses, but how many of them are still trading in this area?

The Mayor of San Miguel still stands by the fact that we will have a new water supply soon. But he has been saying this for many years and it always rears its ugly head around the time of election, and still we get the same answer. “You will have a drinking water soon”.

Not only do we pay a much higher price for our water than other areas of this part of the Costa Blanca, and have been told that even when we get the new water, we will still be paying the same.

We have to endure the not knowing whether we are going to have water to use, but also have to purchase a far greater amount of bottles each week to use for cooking and drinking.

We also have to keep a stock of ERNA bottled water to use for flushing toilets when the water goes off. Would the Mayor of San Miguel repay to those residents the cost of having to buy so much bottled water to use? I don’t think so. I dare say if you asked residents of El Galan, many would tell you that they have to change taps in their houses on a regular basis because the nitrates and salts wear away the chrome and also clog their pipes so badly that nothing works efficiently.

Most of the taps I have seen do have a blue algae at the base of tap and around the area of the spout, this is very hard to get rid off and to me makes me think that they are really dirty.

During this year we have purchased a gas boiler, but it does not seem to be working efficiently in our upstairs bathroom, and we feel that a lot of this is due to the algae.  The downstairs system is fine, but when the water has to flow upstairs, it causes problems.

I lived in the same house in the UK for 30 years and never suffered any of these irritating things.