Over 600 people ill from drinking tap water in south-central France

More than 600 residents of two communes in south-central France have fallen ill after drinking tap water, local authorities have announced.

The people are reported to have exhibited classic symptoms of gastroenteritis (sometimes called stomach flu/bug in the US and UK).

“The large number of sick people whose only exposure was through drinking the water distributed… points to the contamination of the water network,” the regional health authorities in the Haute-Loire, where the two communes are located, said.

They confirmed that 656 people in the Séauve-sur-Semène and Saint-Didier-en-Velay communes – 13% of the total population of the two – had fallen sick with the same symptoms.

In the majority of cases, people were ill for 24 hours before their symptoms began clearing. 

Gastroenteritis can also be spread easily between people, with the authorities believing this may have been responsible for some cases of the sickness in the communes.

Water is now safe to consume 

Santé Publique France (France’s national health authority) carried out a survey assessing water quality in the two communes at the beginning of September. 

Nearly 200 respondents said they had issues with their tap water, including an abnormal colour, taste, or smell, with most of them saying the problems occurred during the last week of August. 

This, coupled with the rapid decline in cases of gastroenteritis from the beginning of September onwards, points to a “probably one-off’ contamination that occurred in the last few days of August, the local health authorities said.

Subsequent analyses have been carried out on water supplies to the commune, with both local and national health authorities confirming the water is safe to drink.

It is still unclear where the initial contamination at the end of August originated. 

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