A mother-of-four who helped expose an outbreak of cryptosporidiosis in a Devon town after falling ill while drinking tap water says an inflation-busting hike in her bill had left her even more frustrated by the ordeal.
Tanya Matthews went to hospital for a colonoscopy after months of persistent symptoms, such as diarrhoea and stomach cramps, following the release of the parasite into Brixham’s water supply.
She was one of the first to raise the alarm, after posting on a local social media group that triggered a wave of comments from others suffering the same symptoms. The day after her post, South West Water confirmed it had found traces of cryptosporidiosis.
The under-fire water company admitted supplying water unfit for human consumption during May 2024 at a hearing at Exeter Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday.
The court heard that the Drinking Water Inspectorate’s view on sentencing, which will take place in June, was that the firm’s actions had been “reckless” – a claim refuted by its solicitor at the hearing.
The guilty plea came as South West Water has been alerting customers to an average 6 per cent rise in household water bills, from £701 to £740, including Mrs Matthews, who said her bill for 2026-27 was £696.82, up 11 per cent from £624.99 in 2025-26, and 62 per cent from £440.13 in 2024-25.
Her 2024-25 bill included a £50 government contribution and was mostly paid for through inconvenience payments.
Over the past year, the company has been dogged by the cryptosporidiosis crisis, along with cases of sewage spills.
Mrs Matthews, who is a carer for one of her children, told The Independent: “Our town, its people, were left on their knees, literally, by the outbreak two years ago, and we’ve been working hard to hold South West Water to account following the case to the court this week.
“When they pleaded guilty I was pleased, but when I heard them saying they were not reckless, I immediately felt angry again because in my eyes they were when they took so long to tell people to stop drinking the water.
“It’s frustrating, especially when I found out in a letter last week that our bill was going up again. We’ve seen a huge rise since two years ago. We’re paying more for drinking water supply that I still don’t have the confidence to drink.”
The 42-year-old first became aware of the problem when residents in her street started feeling unwell, as well as a drop in the numbers at the school gate. Having noticed a “horrible” taste in her mouth after drinking the water, and then suffering stomach cramps, she called South West Water.
She claimed the water company said, despite confirmed cases of cryptosporidiosis, that the tap water was safe to drink – and so she took to Facebook, where she shared her symptoms in a post, before finding the next morning that 1,200 people had commented.
Later, the firm issued a “boil notice”, meaning people were told to boil their water before drinking, after confirming traces of the parasite had been found in the network.
Mrs Matthews, who said she received a £4,000 compensation settlement from the company, said: “It was too late. As a precaution, the company should have issued the notice much sooner. We could have seen fewer people struck down with illnesses as a result.”
With the notice in place, South West Water set up water bottle collection points – but the impact, as highlighted in court this week, was significant for the community, with a loss of income for businesses and school closures.
The company said it had “learned valuable lessons” from the incident, including the importance of early detection. David Harris, the company’s managing director for water services, wrote: “Our processes did not detect this outbreak early enough and so we need to look at improving our monitoring technologies so contaminants can be detected more quickly and accurately.”
On Wednesday, a spokesperson said: “We want to reiterate our full and unreserved apology for the impact of the incident in the Brixham area in 2024. We have cooperated fully with the Drinking Water Inspectorate throughout its investigations. Today is another stage of this legal process, which we will continue to support.”
The company said it had since cleaned and flushed the water system network almost 30 times and installed specialised filters and treatment systems. More than £1m has also been invested in the area through a “marketing recovery fund”.
On the rise in water bills, customer director Ketan Hindocha said: “We know that any increase in customer bills is unwelcome and these decisions aren’t taken lightly.
“We’re investing more than ever across our regions to 2030, to drive improvements on our customers’ top priorities. This record investment represents a step-change, and these increases will support that progress. This includes continuing to provide safe, clean drinking water, significantly reducing the use of storm overflows and protecting the environment to create a future we can all be proud of.”
The company would not comment on Mrs Matthews due to the criminal case still ongoing.
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