'Good progress' being made against water parasite

A boil water notice remains in place for Kingswear, Hillhead and the upper parts of Brixham

South West Water (SWW) said it was "making good progress" in removing a parasite from parts of its water supply in Devon.

The waterborne disease, cryptosporidium, which can cause diarrhoea and sickness, was identified in the network in May believed to have been caused by a damaged air valve on private land.

A boil water notice remains in place for Kingswear, Hillhead and the upper parts of Brixham.

David Harris, incident director SWW, encouraged people to still use water for washing and cleaning.

'Rigorous cleaning process'

He said "rigorous cleaning processes" were in place to tackle the outbreak, including the installation of "additional protection measures such as specialised filters and ultra violet treatment."

"In the meantime, we encourage people to continue to use water around their homes for washing, cleaning and flushing toilets," Mr Harris said.

"The smaller pipes in customer homes compared with our network means that water moves through home plumbing at a much greater speed."

The Incident Director said the water movement helped to clean household pipes, but it was important for customers to use boiled water for drinking and cleaning teeth.

Fix the situation

He said the company was working "as quickly as possible" to fix the situation and public health remained its "absolute priority.

"We will only lift the boil water notice when we are confident it is safe to do so and our public health partners agree," Mr Harris said.

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

South West Water said deliveries of bottled water would continue until the boil water notice was lifted.

'Historic contamination'

SWW has also said there was no new cryptosporidium in its systems despite a small amount being reported in a recent test.

The firm said traces of the parasite were detected on Sunday in the Boohay supply system, which serves Kingswear.

However, a SWW spokesperson said the cryptosporidium detected was "historic contamination" and work was continuing to remove it from the network.