Tap water warning in Copenhagen after E.coli found

Aug 21, 2011
Brazilian teacher Adão da Costa (C) gives a "tele-learning" class at a public school in Xapuri, in northern Brazil. Teachers, who are scarce in some regions of Brazil, are now conducting lessons streamed to students in the village of Tumbira using an Internet connection made possible with a generator-powered radio signal.

Parts of the Danish capital Copenhagen were without clean drinking water Saturday after high levels of the E.coli bacteria were detected in the municipal tap water system.

"The tests... show that parts of Norrebro and another central Copenhagen neighbourhood have been affected," the water distribution agency, Kopenhamns Energi, said in a statement.

It said the unusually high levels of E.coli were detected late Friday during routine testing of the city's .

It urged residents to boil tap water for two minutes before drinking it and added that further test results were due on Sunday.

According to the Berlingske daily's website, the contamination may have been caused by unclean seeping into the municipal system.

Drinking water contaminated with the bacteria can cause diarrhoea and vomiting but no cases were reported Saturday.

Earlier this year, an outbreak in Germany of a string of the bacteria killed more than 50 people.

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