Burst water main affects 40,000 Geneva residents

Around 40,000 residents in Geneva are without clean tap water after a burst pipe caused disruption over the weekend. + Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox Roughly 40,000 residents in nine Geneva communes: Thônex, Choulex, Corsier, Vandoeuvres, Collonge-Bellerive, Hermance, Anières, Puplinge and Cologny have been affected by the burst pipe, located at Quai Gustave Ador. Canton Geneva has a population of around 518,000. The incident on Saturday evening caused "a depression in the network, resulting in external elements being sucked into the water system", announced Services industriels de Genève (SIG) on Sunday morning. Bacteria in the air could have contaminated the water, explained Frédéric Schulz, head of drinking water at SIG. He reported that a large quantity of water had been released, and that the first measure had been to close the valves. A purge of the network was then carried out, he noted. Bacteriological analyses are underway but will take time ...