AROUND 500 households have been ordered not to drink water directly from the tap after a water main was damaged.
Contractors working on a gas main in Clarence Road North, Benfleet, hit a water pipe at around 9.30am this morning.
As a precaution, Essex and Suffolk Water staff hand delivered letters to around 500 homes in the surrounding streets warning them to boil tap water before drinking it until further notice.
The water company’s spokeswoman Cara Hall said: “We are currently undertaking the repair and we have issued customers with boil waters notices as a precautionary measure.
“It’s nothing for customers to worry about. We need to ensure that water quality has not been compromised in any way.”
The company will contact customers again when the water is safe to drink.
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