Boil water notice lifted for last residents in town after May parasite outbreak

The warning not to drink tap water in Brixham, Devon, was put in place eight weeks ago after an outbreak of sickness and diarrhoea.

A ‘boil water’ notice has been lifted for the last remaining residents in Brixham (Piers Mucklejohn/PA) (PA Wire)

A “boil water” notice has been lifted for the last remaining residents in Brixham, eight weeks after the Devon town was hit by a parasite outbreak.

Thousands of households and businesses in the Brixham area of Devon, supplied by South West Water (SWW), had been told not to use their tap water for drinking without boiling and cooling it first in the wake of a cryptosporidium outbreak, a parasite which causes sickness and diarrhoea.

About 17,000 households and businesses in the Brixham area of Devon, supplied by South West Water (SWW), were issued with a “boil water” notice on May 15 as scores of reported cases of illness emerged in the town.

The full network in the Brixham area has now returned to normal and all customers, business and visitors can drink their tap water, safely

South West Water

Most were able to safely use their tap water again within a few days, but 2,500 homes in Brixham continued to be warned to boil it as the water company sought to flush the parasite out of the system.

The boil water notice was lifted in phases, and finally removed for the remaining customers affected on Monday, 54 days after it was first imposed.

The microscopic parasite which caused the waterborne disease likely entered the water network through a damaged air pipe in a field containing cattle, the company has said.

In a statement as it lifted the last remaining boil water notice, SWW said: “Following eight weeks of intensive interventions, enhanced sampling and monitoring together with working alongside public health partners – the full network in the Brixham area has now returned to normal and all customers, business and visitors can drink their tap water, safely.

“Nothing has mattered more to us than the health and safety of our customers and we are pleased we can now reassure you that your water supply meets the high standards you rightly expect.”

As the contamination crisis rolled on, the water company’s owner Pennon revealed its chief executive’s pay package had jumped 58% in 2023-24, even as pollution incidents at the water utility soared by 80% to 194 last year.