Independent report

Water and sanitation - scripts for broadcast media

Published 16 December 2025

The 4 UK Chief Medical Officers (CMOs) as independent advisers provide public health advice in emergencies. To help preparations for the very unlikely scenario of a national power outage, which refers to a total power outage affecting the whole of Great Britain, they have published the public health advice that the public would be given in this scenario.

Many countries plan for a national power outage. This is part of routine resilience and contingency planning for emergencies. A national power outage is listed in the National Risk Register as ‘failure of the national electricity transmission system (NETS)’.

Although a national power outage is unlikely to occur, if it did happen it would result in everyone in the country (except those with backup generators) losing their mains electricity supply instantaneously and possibly without warning. Among other effects this could also result in the loss of:

• mobile and internet telecommunications
• water
• sewage removal and treatment
• fuel
• gas
• ability to make electronic payments

This would cause significant and widespread disruption and risk to health, and the UK CMOs’ advice is to help reduce the public health impact.

The government Prepare website contains helpful, practical advice on how to prepare for a power cut whether it is short lived or on a national scale. See the pages Power cuts and Get prepared for emergencies for more information.

In the unlikely scenario of a national power outage, communicating health advice to the public would be challenging because phone, internet and television services would be disrupted. For this reason, emergency communications to the public would be limited to radio (BBC Radio 2 and Radio 4), which is the most power resilient form of communication. This means that anyone with access to a battery-powered, wind-up or car radio (while the battery lasts) would be able to access the advice. 

Specifically, the UK CMOs have developed scripts to provide public advice on the following important health topics in the unlikely event of a national power outage:

• water and sanitation
• food and nutrition
• keeping warm or cool in extreme weather

For water and sanitation, and food and nutrition there is a shorter version of the script to be read on the first day of the emergency and a more detailed version for the following days. These 2 scripts are considered by the UK CMOs to cover the most important health topics, due to the urgency of providing accurate advice to the public early on in the emergency. Keeping warm or cool in extreme weather is intended to be helpful in certain situations in winter or summer. 

These are not government policy - they been developed by the 4 UK CMOs as independent health advisers, with valuable input from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and collaboration across the 4 nations and their respective public health agencies.

Script: day 1

A public health message from the UK Chief Medical Officers - please listen carefully. 

Hello, this is [insert name], Chief Medical Officer/other for [insert nation]. I am about to provide you with important information. You may want to write this down so that you can refer to it later. This advice will be repeated regularly.

We have planned in case this extraordinary situation happened and this advice has been created by doctors and scientists to help keep you and your family healthy. 

Today, I am going to provide you with information about 3 important things: how much fluid you need to drink while tap water is unavailable, which fluids are safe to drink, and using water for hygiene purposes.

We are providing this advice on the basis that the power might be out for a number of days. While water supplies are limited you should use water only for drinking, washing your hands and preparing food. 

Firstly, how much fluid you need to drink.

It is important to make sure you drink enough during this time while conserving water. Try to drink at least 2 litres of fluid a day, which is around 8 cups. This fluid can be water or other liquids.

Please:

• take stock of how much fluid you have at home including water, soft drinks and other fluids that are safe to drink 

• try to make sure you have enough for everyone in your home to have 8 cups of fluid to drink per day for the next few days. Keep a note of how much you are using every day to avoid leaving yourself short 

Make sure babies, children, women who are pregnant or breastfeeding and elderly household members get as much of the recommended fluid per day as possible, as they are at higher risk of becoming unwell if they do not have enough to drink. Remember this is around 4 cups of fluid a day for children under 2, unless they are being breastfed, and 8 cups of fluid a day for everyone else. 

If you have a child under 2 at home who is not being breastfed, carry on with their usual feeding schedule but make sure they have at least 1 litre of fluid a day (around 4 cups). Formula milk counts as part of this 1 litre. For formula milk, wash bottles, give a final rinse using a small amount of your cleanest water, then use more of this cleanest water to make up the formula.

Secondly, which fluids are safe to drink.

While water from your cold tap is still flowing normally, it remains safe to drink. 

Other fluids which are safe to drink include bottled water, soft and fizzy drinks and juice from tinned fruit. Remember, the fluid doesn’t only need to be water however do not drink milk or fresh fruit juice that smells as though it has gone off.

Tomorrow we will talk about alternative fluids if these run out.

Thirdly, using water for hygiene purposes.

While running water is unavailable or in short supply, it is important to keep the majority of water you have for drinking. However, you do need to have some water to wash your hands after using the toilet. 

To make sure you can carry on washing your hands while the power is out, fill a large bowl like a washing up bowl with water and add some soap or a household disinfectant. Use this soapy water to wash your hands after using the toilet. Everyone in the house can share this bowl of soap and water to wash their hands the whole time while the power is out, without needing to replace it. I know this might sound unusual, but the water will remain safe for washing your hands throughout the period. 

If anyone in your house has diarrhoea, keep a separate bowl of water and soap or disinfectant for them to use to wash their hands. 

Washing your hands with soap and water is more effective at killing all germs than hand sanitiser, so use soap and water wherever you can and use hand sanitiser if it’s the only thing you have. 

You will not be able to flush the toilet. Do not try to in any way as the sewage system will not be working. You should collect your poo in plastic bags, which should be sealed and disposed of with normal household waste, ideally in an outside bin. 

Do not use water for showering or bathing, save it for drinking, handwashing and preparing food.

Please follow this advice until you hear otherwise to give everyone the best chance of staying as healthy as possible. This advice will be repeated regularly.

We will provide more information tomorrow and in the coming days on other water sources you can make safer to drink. And remember, while water supplies are limited use water only for drinking, washing your hands and preparing food.

Script: day 2 and onwards

A public health message from the UK Chief Medical Officers - please listen carefully. 

Hello, this is [insert name], Chief Medical Officer/other for [insert nation]. I am about to provide you with important information. You may want to write this down so that you can refer to it later. This advice will be repeated regularly.

We have planned in case this extraordinary situation happened and this advice has been created by doctors and scientists to help keep you and your family healthy. 

Today, I am going to remind you how much fluid you need to drink, which fluids are safe to drink and about using water for hygiene purposes.

By this point, you may be running low on fluids at home and so I am also going to give you additional information on how to make alternative water sources safer to drink. Some of this information is quite detailed - you may want to write it down.

We are providing this advice on the basis that the power might be out for a number of days. Remember, while water supplies are limited use water only for drinking, washing your hands and preparing food. 

Firstly, how much fluid you need to drink.

It is very important to make sure you drink enough while conserving water. Try to drink at least 2 litres of fluid a day - this is around 8 cups. Remember, this fluid can be water or other liquids. It can be from bottled water, soft and fizzy drinks and juice from tinned fruit.

If you have a child under 2 at home who is not being breastfed, carry on with their usual feeding schedule but make sure they have at least 1 litre of fluid a day, which is around 4 cups. Formula milk counts as part of this 1 litre. For formula milk, wash bottles, give a final rinse using a small amount of your cleanest water, then use more of this cleanest water to make up the formula.

For a child who is still breastfed, continue to feed them when they are asking for breast milk as usual. 

Alcoholic drinks are usually dehydrating so shouldn’t be drunk but low alcohol beer or other low alcohol drinks (less than 1.2%) are not dehydrating and you can drink these if you run out of water.

Secondly, fluids that can be made safer to drink.

If you have run out of safe fluids, there are other sources of water you can drink as long as you take some additional steps to make them safer.

This includes water from hot water taps. 

You can also drink rainwater [or melted snow or ice^{[footnote 1]}] and water from water butts. Water from reservoirs, fresh-water lakes and free flowing streams can also be made safer to drink. I know not everyone will live close to these sources and so you should only access them if you live very close by and can get water from them safely. River water is much less safe to drink and you should only drink river water as a last resort.

These are the steps you should take to make this water safer:

1. Use a clean container to collect the water. Do not use a container that used to hold chemicals such as fuel or paint.

2. Once the container is full, check that the water looks clean. If there is an oily film on top, don’t drink it.

3. Get something to filter the water - a coffee filter, pillowcase or bedsheet

4. Pour the clean looking water through the filter material and then throw away any solid bits in the filter. Repeat this until the water runs clear.

5. If you can, disinfect the filtered water by boiling it or by using water purification tablets as long as they are in date. 

6. If you can’t boil the water and you don’t have purification tablets, you can use regular unscented, household bleach. It is important not to use too much bleach. Add approximately one-quarter of a teaspoon of unscented, household bleach for every 10 litres of water (approximately one bucket). Leave it to stand for 15 minutes. 

7. The water should have a slight chlorine smell. If the smell is very strong, leave it uncovered for 2 hours before drinking.

8. Store your water in a cool, dark place.

This water should be used for drinking rather than washing your hands or cooking.

I know all the advice I am giving you might sound strange and you may be especially worried about drinking water containing bleach. Remember that this advice has been developed by doctors and scientists to help keep you safe and healthy, as long as you follow these instructions carefully.

Finally, using water for hygiene purposes. 

To make sure you can carry on washing your hands while the power is out, keep using the large bowl you filled on day one with soap and water even if it no longer looks clean. Remember that everyone in the house can use this same bowl to wash their hands the whole time the power is out, without needing to replace it.

Use soap and water wherever you can to wash your hands and use hand sanitiser if it’s the only thing you have. 

Remember that you are not able to flush the toilet. Do not try to in any way as the sewage system will not be working. You should collect your poo in plastic bags, which should be sealed and disposed of with normal household waste, ideally in an outside bin if you have one, then wash your hands. 

Lastly, if anyone in your house has diarrhoea, it is very important they keep hydrated. You can replace the sugar, salt and minerals your body has lost by adding hydration sachets to your fluids, if you have them at home. To make your own rehydration solution, add 6 level teaspoons of sugar, one level teaspoon of salt and one heaped teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda to a litre of fluid (around 4 cups). Remember, this fluid can be water or other liquids, including those that you have made safe to drink.

Make sure you wash your hands after using the toilet and before preparing or eating food. If you have diarrhoea, use a separate bowl of water and soap from the rest of the household. 

Please follow this advice until you hear otherwise to give everyone the best chance of staying as healthy as possible. This advice will be repeated regularly. Remember, while water supplies are limited use water only for drinking, washing your hands and preparing food.

1. Only if seasonally appropriate. ↩