In the same week that council has won a Local Government Excellence in the Environment Award for its manganese trial to try and fix the problem, we have again received a number of calls complaining that the dirty water has returned.

And no-one can blame people for being upset when brown - or even black - water pours from the taps when they’re trying to cook dinner, wash the dishes or clean their clothes.

And so the search for a solution goes on.

Results from the manganese trial seem positive but so far it has only been tested on one of the major filters across the network.

Council is baulking at the cost - expected to run into seven figures - to roll the trial out to all 14 filters across the region.

But if that’s what it takes to provided clear drinking water to homes then they really don’t have much choice.

As has been pointed out many times over the past few years, residents pay a lot of money in water charges and those charges go up every year.

So residents have every right to expect that they will be able to use that water for regular household drinking and washing. At the moment, that’s not the case for too many homes on too many occasions.

The discolouration may not have been a problem of council’s making but it’s one that council has a duty to fix.

The manganese trials seem to have found the solution so now it’s just a case of paying for it. Let’s hope it happens sooner rather than later.