Residents angry at ongoing boil notice a month on

Residents who have now been boiling their water for nearly a month due to a parasite outbreak in Devon have called for more compensation.

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

South West Water (SWW) said it believed a damaged air valve on private land had caused the outbreak and work on preventing the parasite being reintroduced was complete.

One frustrated resident said the issue should have been resolved “weeks ago”.

Ian Lomas, a resident from Higher Brixham, called on SWW to offer more compensation due to the severity of the matter.

He said it was “disgusting” that the boil water notice was in place.

“In this day and age, it should have been resolved weeks ago,” he said.

“My household have managed to stay illness free so far, however we will not be drinking the water ever again.”

SWW has been contacted for further comment.

The firm said on 25 May it had offered £265 to residents affected by the boil water notice.

Bryon Freer, from Hillhead, said the communication had dropped off from SWW in recent weeks.

“When it initially happened, we had South West Water bosses on the scene and had leaflets being posted through the door,” he said.

“Now though, it feels like South West Water has retracted back and treating like it’s out of sight, out of mind.”

Paul Hunter, a professor in medicine at the University of East Anglia, said it may not take “too much longer” before a boil water notice could be lifted but it would only happen when water samples were “reliably clear”.

Prof Hunter, a leading expert in cryptosporidium outbreaks, said it was “not unusual” the issue had not been resolved yet.

“It depends on the system you’ve got,” he said.

“Some of the outbreaks in the past we investigated, it was very easy to change the water source and then flush the system out in a matter of a few days.

“Other systems take a lot longer.”

He added: “It seems from what I’ve read is the last thing they’re doing after installing new filters and treatments is to flush the end of the system out and that takes time.

“Hopefully that won’t take them too much longer and we’ll be able to see the boil water notice lifted in the next few days.”

David Harris, incident director at SWW, said work had been completed “to prevent any reintroduction of crypto into the network”.

He said an ultraviolet (UV) treatment had begun on SWW’s Boohay supply tank.

“We now have a double layer of protection using UV and specialist microfilters across the Hillhead and Boohay water supply networks, to prevent any reintroduction of crypto into the network,” he said.

“We are pleased to say that progress is also being made in cleaning the network.”