Devon boil water notices lifted for 21 households

About 2,500 homes were under notice after cryptosporidium was found

Twenty-one households have been told they can stop boiling their drinking water after a parasite outbreak in Devon.

South West Water (SWW) said it was still advising about 2,073 households in the wider Hillhead, upper Brixham and Kingswear areas to continue to boil their drinking water.

The lifting of the boil water notice for 21 households supplied off the Hillhead to Boohay main follows an announcement by SWW that it had progressed in cleaning and protecting its water network.

About 2,500 homes in Brixham and Kingswear were under notice after cryptosporidium, which can cause diarrhoea and sickness, was found in the water supply on 15 May.

Pipes flushing continues

Customers and businesses who no longer needed to boil their water before consuming it would be contacted directly, said SWW.

It said: "Our water quality scientists have been working closely with our analytical facilities and public health professionals, and the results of our water quality monitoring confirm that it is safe to lift the boil water notice in this part of the network.

"This means that customers supplied off that main can now return to using their tap water as normal."

Remaining households were served by a separate system that "continues to be flushed and cleaned to ensure the water is safe to drink", said SWW.

Laura Flowerdew, SWW chief customer and digital officer, thanked customers "for their continued patience while our teams work hard to clean the network and put interventions in place to prevent this from happening again".

SWW said it was "working around the clock to lift the boil water notice for the remaining customers in the Hillhead, Upper Brixham and Kingswear area".

"Cryptosporidium levels are reducing as a result of our work but we will only lift the notice further when we are completely sure it is safe to do so," it said.

If any customers or businesses were unsure whether they remained under the boil water notice, they could check using South West Water’s postcode checker, it added.