AIR is being blasted through water mains in Darwen in a bid to clean up the water supply.

North West Water is spending £315,000 on cleaning 87 kilometres of mains in the area.

The job involves scouring the mains with an air bubble, which disturbs sediment lying in the pipes.

The sediment is then flushed away and treated at waste water treatment works.

Air scouring is carried out to parts of the network where old cast iron mains have been replaced. Sediment from the old mains sometimes gathers in the connected pipework and can discolour water from customers' taps.

The work, to be done in two phases, is part of a £525million programme of investments to improve water and waste water quality this year.

The scouring is expected to be completed by April.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.