South West Water has been fined £1.85 million for supplying contaminated water that caused a cryptosporidiosis outbreak in Devon, affecting hundreds of people. The incident has led to widespread mistrust in the local water supply.
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A utility company has been fined £1.85m for supplying water unfit for human consumption after a parasite outbreak made hundreds of people sick and forced thousands of households to boil their water.
South West Water (SWW) pleaded guilty to the criminal offence relating to a cryptosporidiosis outbreak in Brixham, Devon, in the spring and summer of 2024.
Judge Smith said: “This was a serious failure by South West Water. The harm caused was wide-ranging, multilayered and profound.”
The judge said water companies were “regional monopolies” with “captive customers” and the outbreak had led to an enduring mistrust of the local tap water. He quoted one resident who said: “In this country we are lucky to have good drinking water but we have lost trust in our water supply.”
Joe Millington, for the Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI), which brought the prosecution, said schools and other services were affected and the local economy hit. Millington said what happened “significantly undermined” people’s confidence in the water supply.
He told Exeter magistrates that the outbreak was likely to have been caused by a compromised air valve on farmland, where cattle and sheep were kept. It was covered in mud and a seal was broken, with water pooling across the field.
Millington also said that air valves SWW had in place “were not being inspected in accordance with the policy [SWW] drafted in 2020”.
He said the farm had never been inspected. “This was a high-risk site,” Millington added. The prosecutor said people suffered diarrhoea, stomach cramps, dizziness and sickness, with 537 becoming ill of which 159 had contact with the healthcare system and 10 were admitted to hospital.
He told the court people had been physically and emotionally affected and the outbreak had a “profound” impact on vulnerable members of the community and children.
Millington read statements from some of those affected. One who needed hospital treatment said: “My illness made me feel as if I was beaten up and it has been a long process getting over it.”
Another said the water tasted as if it had come from a pond and they lost almost a stone. A third said her son needed to be put on a drip in hospital. “Hospital was nothing short of horrendous. He was extremely scared and stressed.” Later he would only bathe in bottled water because he was so frightened.
A mother said that during the weeks the boil notice was in place she had to watch her four-year-old while he showered to make sure he did not drink water. Another parent said her child had night terrors about a “bug in the water”.
The fine was due to a parasite outbreak, specifically cryptosporidiosis, caused by supplying water unfit for human consumption.
South West Water was fined £1.85 million for the incident related to the parasite outbreak.
The outbreak made hundreds of people sick and forced thousands of households to boil their water, significantly undermining confidence in the local water supply.
The outbreak occurred in the spring and summer of 2024.
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School pupils described missing classes, exams, trips and sports. One said she felt too ill to revise for exams.
Mark Eager, who was principal of Brixham College at the time, said school attendance and GCSE results had been affected, especially those for disadvantaged children.
Millington said that at one point during the crisis, SWW wrongly lifted its instruction for 28 houses to boil water because of “issues with its digital mapping system”.
The barrister said the risks around air valves were known for more than 10 years and the DWI had recommended companies have formal inspection policies four years before the outbreak. But he added: “Not a single air valve was inspected.”
Dominic Kay KC, for SWW, said the company unreservedly apologised and felt genuine remorse.
He said SWW had created a policy on air valve inspection following the DWI recommendation but accepted it had not been implemented.
The barrister said it believed there was a second ingress of cryptosporidiosis into the water system from the farm. He said that when officials inspected after the outbreak, they found illegal “cross connections” (links between safe drinking water and water not fit for human consumption). The company believes cryptosporidiosis first got into the mains water from these cross connections, then later via the air valve.
Kay also said the valve’s cover had been deliberately removed, allowing silt, soil and water to collect around it.
He told the court the company had warned people not to boil water as soon as it became clear there was a problem.
The court heard that SWW has 22 convictions since June 2014 – including supplying water unfit for human consumption in north Devon in 2018.
Caroline Voaden, the Liberal Democrat MP for South Devon, said: “Words like incompetent and reckless are so often used to describe our broken water industry that they have almost lost their meaning. But the truth is South West Water failed at their most basic duty, and no amount of money will ever fully regain the customer trust they squandered.”
The company pleaded guilty to an offence under the Water Industry Act 1991. It faced an unlimited fine.