{"id":52469,"date":"2025-09-30T17:34:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T17:34:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/52469\/"},"modified":"2025-09-30T17:34:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T17:34:11","slug":"drinking-water-from-across-the-south-tested-at-the-hampshire-lab","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/52469\/","title":{"rendered":"Drinking water from across the South tested at the Hampshire lab"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jon CuthillEnvironment correspondent, BBC South<\/p>\n

\"BBCBBC<\/p>\n

Tasting drinking water follows strict protocols including the exact temperature it can be tested at<\/p>\n

Row upon row of wine glasses are lined up on tables in a room where the walls and ceiling are painted white.<\/p>\n

They stand on black mats with wires trailing to digital displays that show 25C.<\/p>\n

Each and every glass contains a level sample of water with a small disc resting on top to seal in the odour.<\/p>\n

Welcome to the world of water tasting.<\/p>\n

“I guess it’s very like wine tasting,” explains the head of water quality for South East Water, Neil Hudson, at the laboratory in Farnborough, Hampshire.<\/p>\n

“We use wine glasses – that collects the odour in the top of the glass.<\/p>\n

“Before you do the tasting you do the odour first to get an idea of what the scent of the water is if there is any.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The panel of testers are not allowed any distractions while the smell and taste of each sample is assessed<\/p>\n

Before being poured, the chlorine used in the treatment of the drinking water is removed and the water warmed to an exact 25C – the perfect temperature to release the odour and sample the taste.<\/p>\n

“What most people think water should taste like is where they’ve been brought up because it does have a different taste,” Mr Hudson said.<\/p>\n

A panel of three taste testers work through the water samples, noting odours and flavours.<\/p>\n

I’m asked not to film the actual testing in case my camera is a distraction to the exacting process.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The head of water quality for South East Water, Neil Hudson, says the laboratory will process up to two million tests a year<\/p>\n

The water tasting is just one part of the around-the-clock testing taking place at the recently expanded laboratories in Farnborough.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of samples from water sources, treatment and customer’s taps arrive every day to be checked for quality and contamination.<\/p>\n

According to the Drinking Water Inspectorate’s latest report, 99.97% of drinking water in England meets the expected standards.<\/p>\n

But when things go wrong it makes headline news.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

The coastal town of Brixham, Devon, was at the centre of a cryptosporidium outbreak in May 2024<\/p>\n

South West Water has been issued a court summons after an investigation into a parasite outbreak in the waters supply in Brixham, Devon.<\/p>\n

More than 100 cases of cryptosporidiosis were linked to the outbreak, which caused sickness and diarrhoea, in May 2024.<\/p>\n

South West Water said it had “co-operated fully with the Drinking Water Inspectorate from the outset of this incident to help in its investigations” and would “reflect on this summons”.<\/p>\n

The BBC understands the outbreak contributed to a near \u00a340m bill for South West Water owner Pennon.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Richard Brown, laboratory manager for South East Water, said testing was fundamental to public health <\/p>\n

Back in Farnborough South East Water has just expanded its laboratory services and has a new contract to test drinking water for Southern Water.<\/p>\n

Testing is carried out around the clock, every day, including Christmas Day.<\/p>\n

“There are bacterias we are looking for,” explains Laboratory Manager Richard Brown.<\/p>\n

“There are chemicals, there are metals. Pesticides in this lab here. <\/p>\n

“Quite a few determinands that we are trying to make sure that aren’t in the water.”<\/p>\n

But away from the biology and chemistry there are some elements of testing that computers just can’t handle.<\/p>\n

You just need a decent nose for it. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jon CuthillEnvironment correspondent, BBC South BBC Tasting drinking water follows strict protocols including the exact temperature it can…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":52470,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[273,111,139,69,147],"class_list":{"0":"post-52469","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nz","12":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}