Boil water notice lifted for 21 customers after cryptosporidium outbreak
It's after South West Water announced plans to lift the boil water notices in phases
South West Water has today (Friday 14 June) lifted the boil water notice for 21 customers supplied off the Hillhead to Boohay main.
It means that customers supplied off that main can now return to using their tap water as normal.
The company is still advising around 2,073 households in the wider Hillhead, upper Brixham and Kingswear areas to continue to boil their drinking water before consumption.
It's because they are served by a separate system that continues to be flushed and cleaned to ensure the water is safe to drink.
Customers and businesses who no longer need to boil their water before consuming it will be contacted directly today.
This week South West Water commenced ultraviolet (UV) treatment at its Boohay supply tank, following UV being operational at its Hillhead supply tank from 4 June.
The company say in addition to its other interventions, this means that it now has a "double layer of protection" using UV and specialist microfilters across the Hillhead and Boohay water supply networks.
Water quality monitoring will continue for the foreseeable future
Laura Flowerdew, South West Water’s Chief Customer and Digital Officer, said: "We want to thank our customers, visitors and local businesses for their continued patience while our teams work hard to clean the network and put interventions in place to prevent this from happening again.
"We are pleased to be able to remove the boil water notice for 21 customers along the Hillhead to Boohay main. We want to reassure everyone that we have taken all the necessary steps, including rigorous sampling, to be sure their water is safe to use as normal.
"We are 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."
Bottled water continues to be delivered to all affected households across the boil water notice area.
South West Water will continue to offer bottled water stations at Freshwater Quarry Public Car Park (TQ5 8BA), Broadsands Car Park (TQ4 6HX) and Churston Car Boot Sale Field (TQ4 7BQ) between 7.00am and 9.00pm every day.