South West Water has admitted to supplying water unfit for human consumption, which left 10 people in hospital after it said it was safe to drink.
The water firm faces a massive fine today after residents were infected with cryptosporidiosis – a waterborne bug, which causes sickness, diarrhoea and stomach cramps.
SWW told its customers the water was safe to drink despite some confirmed cases of the parasite, which later totalled 143, with 10 hospitalised.
And just 24 hours later, on May 15, 2024, the firm told residents of around 17,000 households across Brixham, south Devon, to boil their water.
The tiny waterborne parasite emerged amid ‘an air valve contamination issue’ at Hillhead reservoir during the tourist season of that year, Exeter Magistrates Court heard.
The water firm has since admitted that between March 31, 2024 and June 1, 2024, the water it was supplying to the Brixham area was ‘unfit for human consumption’.
The Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI), prosecuting, said the Exeter-based water firm faced unlimited fines for the offences it described as a ‘major incident’.
Joseph Millington, prosecuting on behalf of the DWI, described the incident as ‘extremely high profile’ and having impacted ‘a significant number of people’.
‘It had an adverse impact on the public’s confidence in water serving this area,’ Mr Millington said.
He told the court that water firm workers discovered water bubbling from the ground and leaking from a faulty valve, covered in mud, at Hillhead.
Dominic Kay KC, representing SWW, said the firm supplied water affected by cryptosporidium, ‘unbeknownst to it’.
South West Water has admitted to supplying water unfit for human consumption to the area of Brixham (pictured), which left 10 people in hospital after it said it was safe to drink
Cryptosporidium can be found in the intestines and faeces of infected humans and animals
‘SWW takes this matter very seriously and has genuine remorse for this incident,’ he said.
Mr Kay said there were two means of entrance – one, a cross connection at a farm, and a second, a valve being deliberately damaged by the disposal of a cover.
He said the farmer admitted moving cattle to the field where the damaged air valve was located, two weeks before the incident broke out.
Mr Kay said: ‘SWW are not making excuses, they take responsibility for the outbreak.’
Since June 2014, SWW has received 22 environmental charges, with a total of 114 before that date.
Among the countless environmental charges was also for supplying water unfit for human consumption in June 2018.
Meanwhile, customers suffered long-term effects, having a knock-on impact on the local tourism as well as school attendance numbers due to illness.
Victim impact statements read to the court described how some consumers became so unwell they felt as if they ‘had been beaten up’.
Meanwhile, a mother to an eight-year-old autistic boy was left ‘utterly terrified’ after her son had to be readmitted to hospital after contracting the parasite from the water.
The mother, who had also been hit by the bug, explained her son had initially been put on drips and fluids after being admitted to the hospital the first time.
Then, he lost weight and refused to eat food or fluids because he was unable to swallow anything, leaving him hospitalised for three nights.
Pensioner Howard Heather was also left hospitalised by the outbreak, adding that many had ‘lost confidence’ in the water firm.
Mr Heather, who is diabetic, suffered violent diarrhoea and sickness, which left him barely conscious. His wife called an ambulance to take him to the hospital.
‘If the same thing happened again, people with serious or chronic illnesses could die,’ he said.
Jo Byrne previously revealed she lost 13lbs in the span of three days after being hit by the bug, saying: ‘I have never been so sick in my life.’
Meanwhile, many have been left living with the impacts of the waterborne parasite, with local Lisa Horswill still suffering with pain and bloating.
‘I am still suffering, but there are no solutions or help,’ the 55-year-old mother, whose six-year-old daughter also fell ill due to the unfit water, said.
Mrs Horswill accused South West Water of ‘moving the goalposts over cryptosporidium levels as they are their own regulatory body’.
Since the outbreak, her husband Kris, 46, has end-stage renal failure and is on dialysis as well as a kidney transplant list.
He said the outbreak had contributed to his health condition, vowing to ‘never’ drink the water again.
‘We have two special filters to distil our water. And we are paying £600 a year in water rates!’ he said.
SWW told its customers the water was safe to drink despite some confirmed cases of the parasite, which later totalled 143, with 10 hospitalised (Pictured: Brixham)
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Tanya Mitchell, who also lives in Brixham, was one of the first to raise the alarm about the outbreak – and is still suffering from its impacts on her health.
‘I can’t use the water,’ she told the court. ‘If I go away, I take half a suitcase packed with bottled water with me.’
‘I cannot imagine turning the tap on. Before this, I drank water, but not now. If I turn a tap on, I check to smell any odour or see how cloudy it is.’
Local South Devon Lib Dem MP Caroline Voaden said: ‘Cryptosporidium can be really dangerous if you have a pre-existing health condition or reduced immunity.
‘Some people were very badly affected by it, others bounced back fairly quickly.
‘But the trust that people had in the water company was completely broken. The way the water company responded afterwards, they initially offered £15 in compensation, but many people could not work, and their children were sick.’
The Daily Mail has approached South West Water for comment.
