Worms were reported to be found at Block 472, Ang Mo Kio Avenue 10, which spurred the town council to perform not only a check but the cleaning of the pump room and tank, just to make sure there was no contamination.
The Ang Mo Kio Town Council (AMKTC) and the PUB (Singapore’s Public Utilities Board) have since put out a joint statement concerning the December 6 discovery of a worm in a glass of water by the helper of a resident.
The water had come from the faucet in the resident’s apartment’s kitchen.
The statement assured residents and the public of the safety of the water in Block 472.
“The water supply from the resident’s unit was found to be clean and clear during the town council’s checks.
Subsequently, AMKTC checked the water tanks and the pump room on 7 Dec and no worms were observed.”
However, AMKTC also had the pump room and water tanks cleaned just as an extra precaution, and no other reports of worms in the water supply have been received. The PUB believes that the worm was most probably an earthworm that may have originated from the Block’s surroundings, based on a photo shown by the resident.
How the worm was found
On December 6, a resident of Block 472 told Shin Min Daily News that while her helper was washing a milk bottle belonging to one of the resident’s children, the helper said a worm came out of the faucet.
“I thought it was food, but then I saw that it was a 4 or 5-centimeter live worm and I ran to the living room to alert my employer,” said the helper to Shin Min Daily News, as reported by The New Paper.
The resident, who asked to be identified simply as Ms. Zhang, said that they told their town council about this right away, and the AMKTC sent officers to Ms. Zhang’s apartment to inspect and clean the area.
Ms. Zhang has since been boiling the family’s drinking water. As a mother with three small offspring, she has taken extra precautions to make sure her family’s water supply has been safe for consumption.
But Ms. Zhang’s helper isn’t the only one who has found worms at Block 472. ‘Mr. Lin’ also told the Chinese daily that a worm was found in the toilet of his 11th-floor apartment some weeks ago.
It was his wife who made the unpleasant discovery, though it did not cause the Lin family much anxiety, given the location of the worm. Lin said, “We use a water filter at home, so we are not too worried about the cleanliness of the water.”
However, it did make him more aware of how clean, or otherwise, the water in their housing block is.