Brixham's tap water safe to drink as cryptosporidum outbreak cleared

South West Water is fully lifting the boil water notice for people affected by a parasite outbreak in South Devon.

Work has been ongoing for the last eight weeks to get water supplies back to normal in Brixham after cryptosporidium was discovered in the water supply.

South West Water says the notice has now been lifted for customers in the Higher Brixham, Southdown, Upton Manor and St Mary's supply zones, and it is now safe to drink the tap water as normal.

In a statement, South West Water says, "The decision was made in line with the principles agreed with public health partners, including the UK Health Security Agency and the local authority's Environmental Health department.

"Following eight weeks of intensive interventions, enhanced sampling and monitoring together with working alongside public health partners - the full network in the Brixham area has now returned to normal and all customers, business and visitors can drink their tap water, safely.

"Nothing has mattered more to us than the health and safety of our customers and we are pleased we can now reassure you that your water supply meets the high standards you rightly expect.

"Sample results have shown that the completed work including flushing and ice pigging has been highly effective in removing cryptosporidium from the network.

"A triple layer of protection is now in place including microfilters and UV at our tank and in-line microfiltration in your supply zone providing additional barriers.

"So you can be confident that the water is safe to drink. We want to let you know that now you can use your water as normal, we will be closing the bottled water stations from 9pm this evening (Monday 8 July).

"Water deliveries will also stop in the final area to be lifted from the Boil Water Notice today, we will though continue to deliver water to customers on our Priority Services Register today and tomorrow.

"We are sorry for the disruption the Boil Water Notice has brought. We are especially sorry for the distress caused to those who fell ill because of cryptosporidium and to the ones who had to care for them. We would like to thank all our customers, visitors and businesses for your patience and understanding throughout the incident."