CREATING a website to publicise contamination in Malvern’s natural water springs would be ‘disastrous’ for the town, a local expert has warned.
The idea has been mooted by some as a way of alerting people, after Worcetsershire Regulatory Services created alarm earlier this year when they displayed warning messages on some of the wells declaring they had been contaminated.
But Bruce Osborne from the Friends of Malvern Springs and Wells, said contamination was a natural process and would not do much harm to anyone who drank the water.
He said the idea of a website was fundamentally flawed because testing the springs would take days to produce results therefore anything posted on the Internet would be immediately outdated if it rained or there was a storm.
But of greater concern would be the damage it could do to the town’s tourism trade by deterring people from visiting, Mr Osborne added,
He said: “It irritates me that in 1992 when our group first started looking at the springs and wells there was no real knowledge of how many there were.
“We have put in over 20 years of study and built up what is now quite a major tourist attraction doing great things for the economy.
“An ill conceived bit or opportunism in creating a website which could be seen from Australia and making a big issue out of it would be disastrous.”
He said a better approach would be to try and educate people about the nature of springs with small signs next to the wells. Mr Osborne added if people really wanted to feel safe they could simply boil the water.
“Natural springs get contaminated, its a natural process,” he said.
“It’s not particularly new and it is not particularly exciting. It doesn’t do a lot of harm.
“If you are sensitive to infections it maybe best not to drink the water. But if you are of normal body and mind the risk is very low.”
He added problems could also be avoided by people using more appropriate containers when filling up at the springs.
Mr Osborne pointed out things like plastic bottles could still contain elements of the previous liquid which it was used for unlike glass containers.
He also said it was dangerous to keep water for too long because it could effectively resemble pond water after a while if too much Oxygen got to it.
