Water parasite outbreak reaches 100 confirmed cases

South West Water says the next stage of cleaning will begin on Thursday

The number of confirmed cases of people affected by a water parasite outbreak in Devon has risen to 100, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has said.

South West Water (SWW) bosses said "further intense work" was needed to "fully remove any contamination" after the cryptosporidium outbreak in the Brixham area.

David Harris, the incident director at SWW, said over the past week reservoirs had been cleaned and the network had been flushed "several times" in Brixham.

A boil water notice remains in place in parts of the town and Mr Harris said the company needed to be "absolutely confident we have fixed this problem" before the notice was lifted.

A further 23 cases of the waterborne disease has been confirmed

Mr Harris said the next stage of cleaning would begin on Thursday evening on the water main between the Boohay supply tank and Kingswear.

On Thursday, UKHSA confirmed there had been a further 23 cases of the disease - bringing the number of confirmed cases overall to 100.

It is believed a damaged air valve on private land was the cause of the outbreak earlier in May.

The incident director said SWW would automatically apply a £50 credit to customer bills to offset any cost associated with running taps and compensation for the further inconvenience caused.

'Aggressive' cleaning process

The cleaning process which will take place is known as "ice-pigging", and involves an ice solution pushed along pipes using water pressure which "aggressively cleans" every surface, Mr Harris said.

He added: "Our teams continue to work around the clock to clean the network and to put interventions in place to prevent this from happening again.

"Our top priority is to return supply to the quality our customers expect and deserve, quickly and safely.”

SWW said the work would require machinery and there might be some noise during the process.

Sarah Bird, consultant in health protection for UKHSA South West, said the data showed the cases were from people who "live in, or visited the boil water notice area of Brixham and the nearby areas before the notice was put in place".