Cardiff gran dealing with green, yellow-ish water in her pipes for 10 weeks

Kieran Molloy Local Democracy Reporter

A Cardiff gran has been forced to use bottled water for every day tasks for the past ten weeks because the water in her home has turned a strange colour.

Amanda Stevens, 56, moved into her council property in Rumney in May this year and has been dealing with a significantly discoloured water for months.

Because of the state of her water, Amanda has to go to her mother’s or daughter’s house to do basic tasks like doing laundry or washing herself.

Amanda told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) that the situation was an “absolute nightmare” which was “really driving me nuts”.

She continued: “Every day I’m down there, washing my clothes or having a shower. I’m filling up bottles of water for my cooking and my pets and stuff like that”.

In addition to constantly having to go to her family’s houses, Amanda also has to keep buying bottled water for cooking, drinking and brushing her teeth.

Amanda told the LDRS that having to buy large bottles of water on a weekly basis was “costing her a fortune”, even when she buys from cheaper supermarkets, like Aldi.

She also lives at the top of a hill and said having to carry multiple “heavy” bottles of water up the hill has been “a nightmare, literally”.

When the water first became discoloured, Cardiff council did provide her with 18 bottles of water.

In addition to making basic tasks incredibly inconvenient, she is worried about the impact drinking the water could have on herself, her pets and her grandchildren.

She said: “My granddaughter is always turning the cold tap on for the sink. I must clean her teeth and things like that.

“She puts her hands in the water and then she puts them in her mouth because she loves water.”

She said she first noticed the water was discoloured when she ran a bath for her granddaughter.

While council officers have visited her home to inspect the water, she said that the local authority was “dragging their heels” in regard to fixing the problem.

December 9 is the date given to her by the council for when works should be completed, but Amanda doesn’t think she can cope until then.

Welsh Water has confirmed to the LDRS that a site inspection has taken place and there are no issues with the water supply.

A Cardiff Council spokesperson confirmed that a water sample has been taken from the property and assessed, with the results indicating that the water is of ‘adequate’ quality.

The spokesperson said: “The Council has taken a number of steps to identify and resolve the issue. This has included renewing the internal pipework connecting the property to the water main and new stop taps. Following further investigations today (November 10), the issue appears to be linked to the supply pipe to the bath.

A private contractor will be commissioned to replace this pipe, which we expect will resolve the issue with the discoloured water.

“Bottled water has been provided to the tenant, and we would like to apologise for the inconvenience this has caused while these investigations have been carried out.”