Thousands of people in Devon can now safely drink their tap water after being told to boil and cool it first, the area’s water supplier announced after a waterborne illness made hundreds sick.
South West Water (SWW) said around 14,500 households in the Alston supply area could use their tap water safely, while 2,500 properties in Hillhead, the upper parts of Brixham and Kingswear still need to boil their supply before drinking it.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said on Friday that 46 cases of cryptosporidium, a disease which can cause symptoms like diarrhoea and vomiting, had been confirmed in Devon, up from 22 reported on Thursday. Around a 100 more people had reported the same symptoms, and cases were expected to rise.
SWW said this decision was taken yesterday in consultation with UKHSA and the local authority’s environmental health department after “rigorous testing”.
SWW’s chief customer officer, Laura Flowerdew, said: “This situation has caused an immense amount of disruption, distress and anxiety. We are truly sorry this has happened.
“The public rightly expect a safe, clean and reliable source of drinking water and, on this occasion, we have fallen significantly short of expectations. We will not stop working until this has been fully resolved.
“With the boil-water notice still in place in Hillhead, upper parts of Brixham and Kingswear, we are urging customers who are unsure if they are still affected to visit the postcode checker on our website or call us so we can check for them.”
The water company also added that an additional £100 compensation would be paid to affected customers in the area, over the £115 compensation announced earlier.
About 16,000 households and businesses in the area had been under an advisory earlier this week not to use their tap water for drinking without boiling and cooling it first.
Residents are extremely unhappy about the company’s response and their lack of communication with them, as SWW and its chief executive, Susan Davy, was forced to apologise on Friday for the outbreak, saying she was “truly sorry”.
Sally Dart, who runs homewares shop Flotsam 50 near Brixham Harbour, told the PA news agency business was “probably 30 to 40 per cent down” and described South West Water (SWW) as “appalling”.
She said: “I would say it’s quiet and it shouldn’t be at this time of year.
“Quite a lot of us have symptoms from the virus – well, virus from the bacteria.
“We were all sitting around going ‘oh my God, why have I got a headache?’, but no-one was saying anything to us.”
Lincoln Sargeant, Torbay’s director of public health, warned that while the initial contamination has been “more or less dealt with” and delays in symptoms developing may cause the number of cases to increase for “up to two weeks”.
“And we know that South West Water is now actively doing work to flush through the system to make sure that ongoing contamination does not occur.
“However, it’s important to recognise that people may continue to develop symptoms from that initial contamination up to 10 days, some people even up to two weeks, so the numbers may increase – but that doesn’t necessarily mean that the situation is getting worse.”
Conservative MP Anthony Mangnall, whose Totnes constituency includes Brixham, said yesterday: “This is such a serious matter that yes, I think heads are going to roll over this, but it’s more important to get the system back up and running, make sure people have confidence in the network rather than pointing fingers.”
“We do the investigation afterwards and we will make sure that those who are responsible are held to account.”
SWW has said that it will continue to offer bottled water at three stations in the area.
The minister for water, Robbie Moore, said he was “still receiving regular updates” from the water company, adding: “We need South West Water to resolve this issue and ensure clean water returns to the Brixham area as soon as possible.”
