15,000 households in Amersfoort told to boil water after bacteria found
Water company Vitens has advised 15,000 households in Amersfoort to boil tap water for three minutes before drinking after enterococcus bacteria was detected in the city’s water supply. The advisory now affects neighborhoods across the city, including the center and areas to the north, east, and south.
The warning was first issued early Wednesday, December 24, to roughly 1,000 households in the Randenbroek neighborhood, in an area bordered by Hogeweg, Beethovenweg, Flierbeek, and the Valleikanaal. Residents were initially told the advisory would last until 5 p.m. Saturday, but the discovery of bacteria in Vitens’ Utrechtseweg water storage facility prompted a broader extension to 15,000 households.
“Unfortunately, we had to extend the boil-water advisory to a larger area in Amersfoort,” Vitens said. “Despite our efforts to determine the source of the contamination, we still do not know exactly where it came from. To ensure the water is safe to drink, we will continue flushing and testing the water network over the coming days. We take water samples daily and test them in our laboratory. When we obtain two consecutive clean test results, the water will be safe to drink. We will lift the boil-water advisory and inform residents accordingly.”
Residents are advised to boil water before drinking, preparing beverages such as coffee or tea, washing vegetables, or brushing teeth. Bottled water is not necessary if tap water is boiled properly. Vitens emphasized that normal use of tap water for showering, washing hands, running the dishwasher, and cooking does not require pre-boiling.
The enterococcal bacteria, while generally harmless to healthy individuals, can cause diarrhea and other gastrointestinal problems for people with weakened immune systems.
The initial Wednesday advisory caused a run on bottled water and groceries, as residents scrambled to adjust holiday plans. At the Albert Heijn supermarket on Euterpeplein in Randenbroek, bottled water quickly sold out when the store opened. A local resident expressed frustration that her apartment complex was not notified directly. “We find that very strange. You cook with it, you clean with it. That does give us a feeling of unreliability,” she said. Another resident, Tiny Vaartjes, only learned of the advisory upon arriving at the store. “I’m stocking up on extra bottles now, just to be safe,” she said.
Vitens is actively flushing the city’s water network and taking samples at multiple locations. The company plans to provide another update to residents by Wednesday, December 31.
A Vitens spokesperson said the contamination originates from the water network itself, but the cause of the bacteria entering the system remains unknown. The situation differs from a November contamination in the Utrecht region, which was likely caused by a crack in a drinking water reservoir roof in Kanaleneiland.
The territory covered by the warning from Vitens includes postcodes in the city center, and neighborhoods in the north, east, and south of the city. Previously, the warning only covered about a thousand households in the southeast of the city, in an area bordered by Hogeweg, Beethovenweg, Flierbeek, and the Valleikanaal.
There are roughly 163,500 residents living in one of the 71,500 households in Amersfoort. The city is the 15th largest in the Netherlands, behind Apeldoorn and Haarlemmermeer.
