What are you doing right now?

[Minty]

Thinking about braving the shower.

Earlier in the week, the water was shut off due to repairs. As they were due to start work early the next morning, everyone in the neighbourbood filled up their bathtubs with cold water (to use to refill the toilet cistern) as well as pots & pans, etc for cooking, tea & so on. When the all clear was given late afternoon, I decided to leave the bathwater in just in case the water board changed their minds & didn't pull out the plug until about six.

When I did, there was a muddy brown residue left covering the bottom of the bathtub

First thought, "it must be the cistern tank" - until encountering neighbour after neighbour saying "I'll have to get a new cistern tank, you should have seen the muck at the bottom of my bath when I let the water out when they switched the water back on."

Gets in touch with the water board.

"That's usual after a shut off & work on the pipes. Don't worry."
"The bath was filled before you shut off the water. I've been bathing & drinking this crap for god knows how long!"
"Lalalalalalala not listening!"

Gets in touch with local doctors.

"That's usual after a shut off & work on the pipes. Don't worry."
"That stuff has to have been sizeable iron, aluminium & manganese deposits in the water to produce that, all of which are considered significant risks to health if in concentrations large enough to be visible?"
"Lalalalalalala not listening!"

Over in the States, doctors have been concerned about manganese in the water supply being breathed in by people taking hot showers. This stuff attacks the brain, liver & various other body parts. The cure for it is really simple - flushing the system with salty water (which ionises all the bad stuff) or chlorinated water. Companies won't because it "costs money" - but only about as much as it costs your local swimming pool to treat their water daily.

The worrying part is our local water board is Scottish Water, a governmental organisation. Down south, where all the water boards are profit-driven private companies & the water is notoriously "harder", I shudder to think what they're getting away with.

Um, I'll go into the shower in a minute. Just going to let it run on cold for another few minutes just in case!