After 14 years of Tory rule and the expansion of water privatisation in the UK, we’ve reached this point. The quality of our drinking water has reached a new low, and the parasitic disease found in Devon could soon spread to other regions.

Tom Head www.thelondoneconomic.com 

Faecal matter in the water supply, as parasites poison Devon

That’s because traces of faecal bacteria have been found in EIGHT other areas across the country. Data from the Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI) has clocked 34 separate incidents, ranging from Northumberland to Bristol.

As it stands, 46 cases of cryptosporidium have been reported in Devon so far. The disease, which is responsible for causing diarrhoea and vomiting, has been causing havoc in Brixham – where 16,000 households have been told to ‘boil their water’.

Why is our water supply full of disease?

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said on Friday that more cases of this illness are likely to be confirmed in the coming days. Although water authorities say the contamination has now been contained, the upheaval has left locals apoplectic.

It follows the complete collapse in water safety standards in the UK, after the government allowed private firms to dump raw sewage into rivers, lakes, and seas nationwide. However, it now seems that some chickens have come home to roost.

Top of the Plops: Faecal bacteria discovered across the UK

Though stakeholders have been keen to claim this is an ‘isolated incident’, the numbers from elsewhere suggest that this simply isn’t true. As per the DWI, the following water authorities are now battling with cases of ‘faecal matter’ in the drinking supply:

• Severn Trent Water: 12 cases
• Anglian Water: Six cases
• United Utilities: Four cases
• Northumbria: Four cases
• Essex and Suffolk Water: Four cases
• Thames Water: Two cases
• Bristol Water: One case
• DWR Cymru Welsh Water: One case

Shareholders in some of the UK’s largest water companies have taken out tens of billions of pounds but failed to invest, new research claims, with firms planning to raise household bills to fund future spending.

Dearbail Jordan www.bbc.co.uk

Investors have withdrawn £85.2bn from 10 water and sewage firms in England and Wales since the industry was privatised more than 30 years ago, analysis by the University of Greenwich suggests.

Companies are under pressure following sewage spills and water leaks, which critics have blamed on under-investment in the country’s infrastructure.

Ofwat, the industry regulator, said it “strongly refuted” the figures.

A spokesperson added: “While we agree wholeheartedly with demands for companies to change, the facts are there has been huge investment in the sector of over £200bn.”

Water UK, which represents the industry, said investment in the sector was “double the annual levels seen before privatisation”.

Water and sewage firms want to increase customers’ bills by an average 33% over the next five years to fund improvements in the services for households.

But David Hall, visiting professor at the Public Services International Research Unit at the University of Greenwich, claims that water companies have invested “less than nothing of their own money” and are “treating their customers like a cash cow”.

The University of Greenwich examined the company accounts of the top 10 water and sewage companies in England and Wales including Thames Water, United Utilities and Severn Trent.

It said that between privatisation in 1989 and 2023, money invested by shareholders in the largest firms shrunk by £5.5bn when adjusted for inflation.

Over the same period, the amount of “retained earnings” – profits left over once things like dividends have been paid out, that can be used to invest in a business – had dropped by £6.7bn in real terms.

Meanwhile, the total amount that these firms paid out to their shareholders in dividends grew to £72.8bn, when taking inflation into account.

Ofwat said the dividend figure is “simply wrong”.

It said it “does not represent the true total given it is inflation adjusted. Ofwat offers the figure since privatisation as £52bn”.

Taken together, the fall in shareholders’ investment and retained earnings – or profit – and rising dividend payments mean that, according to the University of Greenwich, owners have withdrawn £85.2bn.

Water and sewage firms want to spend around £100bn over the next five years.

They argue that they need more money to improve their infrastructure to help limit leaks.

But Mr Hall said: “You put the prices up because you can and you get more money out of the customers, and then you pass it on to the shareholders because the business you’re in is providing a good return to your shareholders.

“That’s why the companies do what they do and we shouldn’t expect anything different.”

A spokesperson for Water UK said: “Investment requires financing through dividends.

“Water companies now want to increase the pace of investment, with a record plan over the next five years, to ensure the security of our water supply in the future and significantly reduce the amount of sewage entering rivers and seas.

“We now need Ofwat to give us the green light to get on with it.”

There were 464,056 sewage spills in 2023, according to the Environment Agency, a 54% increase on the previous year.

Sewage is defined as anything that goes down a household drain. That includes from the toilet, personal washing or domestic cleaning such as from a washing machine or doing the dishes.

It also includes run-off from roads. A warmer winter and wet weather has meant that many roadside grills have been overwhelmed.

The next few weeks are key in determining by how much water companies can raise customers’ bills.

Ofwat will meet in the coming days to scrutinise water firms’ spending plans and proposed price rises which would affect bills between 2025 and 2030. Ofwat’s draft proposals are set to be published on 12 June.

Water companies can appeal if they do not agree with Ofwat’s recommendations.

But Mr Hall said there needed to be a fundamental change in the way that the water industry is run. “This is a service that matters to us,” he said.

“What we need to do is reverse this system and move to the way the rest of the world does it which is through public authorities and take it back in the public sector.”

A spokesperson for Ofwat said: “We share the concerns of the general public and campaigners about the performance of water companies which, is simply not good enough.

“We have been holding companies to account and have imposed penalties of over £300m in recent years. We want to see a transformation in companies’ performance and will be setting out our plans to deliver this in mid-June.”

Once upon a time districts had Medical Officers of Health. Who is now responsible for keeping an eye on community infections? The dog, or the cat? – Owl

It began as a conversation at the school gates. I was chatting with the other mums just after the May bank holiday, exchanging stories about what we’d been up to.

Tanya Matthews www.thetimes.co.uk 

“We all had a stomach bug — the whole household was struck down with it,” said one. Someone else had had the same thing, cramps and bad diarrhoea. Another had a vomiting bug. In truth, my stomach was starting to feel a bit dodgy, too. At the time I thought nothing of it: there was clearly a bug going around at school.

It wasn’t until the following Friday — with my symptoms getting steadily worse — that I started to think something might be amiss. The school publishes weekly attendance figures for classes each Friday, and that week the numbers were unusually low — about 82 per cent. I thought, that can’t be right.

Sage, left, only drank rainwater and was fine. Nala, right, drank from her bowl and fell sick

My stomach cramps were intensifying, so I tried to drink more water to flush it out. They only got worse. One neighbour went to her GP with severe diarrhoea and was told to stay hydrated. That it was probably food poisoning. One by one, on Ocean View Drive, my street in Brixham, Devon, people were falling ill.

It wasn’t just people, either. Vets have been just as busy as GP surgeries. I have two cats — Sage, who will only drink rainwater, and Nala, who drinks from her bowl. The latter was struck down with vomiting and diarrhoea. I thought that seemed a bit strange.

Last weekend I started to notice that the water coming out of my tap tasted disgusting: horrible and metallic, like chemicals.

On Monday, I found out that one of my neighbour’s three children had been taken ill over the weekend and admitted to hospital with severe dehydration. He was hooked up to an IV drip. Her other son was also ill and is in the middle of his Sats exams.

So on Tuesday last week I called South West Water and asked them to take a water sample from my home. They told me that there had been 15 recorded cases of cryptosporidium — a microscopic parasite — in the area, but reassured me that it had absolutely nothing to do with the water supply. That it was fine to drink. When I got off the phone, I said to my husband: “Something doesn’t feel right”.

With the water company denying culpability, I took matters into my own hands. On Tuesday evening before bed, I wrote a post on the Brixham Facebook page. Had anyone else been experiencing symptoms of a tummy bug? Could it be the water?

When I woke up on Wednesday morning I had 1,200 comments on my post. Everyone was joining the dots together. Finally it all made sense.

Later that day, South West Water came to take a sample from my tap. When I got to the local supermarket, every bottle of water was sold out. I couldn’t get any from anywhere. People were driving for miles to stock up. Later that day South West Water were still reassuring people that the water was safe to drink.

On Wednesday, South West Water finally admitted that the water wasn’t safe to drink and that cryptosporidium was widespread. It is affecting 16,000 households in the area. But for us, at least, the damage has been done.

There are a lot of elderly people in Brixham and many can’t get to the shop to buy water. For people with learning disabilities and dementia, it’s all very distressing. One friend who is on medication for low kidney function has been told he must stop his medication while he recovers from the illness. He is now going to hospital for further blood tests.

I’m now on day 12 of the illness. I’ve never experienced anything like it. My husband Michael is just at the beginning — day four. We’ve both had norovirus in the past, and it’s worse than that. I have four children, three living with me at home, and luckily they have been fine.

One small upside is that the community spirit has been wonderful. Water points have been set up, which we’ve been told we will have to use at least for the next six days until it’s fixed. My local fruit and veg shop is giving water away for free and one Brixham resident has spent £400 of their own money to hand out water. I’ve lived in Brixham for 11 years, so it’s comforting to see everyone pull together.

Unsurprisingly, though, people are also furious. Some schools are closed, and for a community that relies heavily on tourism, it could be awful for businesses. The water company misled us — denying there was anything wrong for days. It took our community to get together to work out the truth, but only after hundreds of people had fallen ill. When this is over, South West Water will have a lot of questions to answer.

As told to Katie Gatens

It’s safe to drink the water – oh no! Wait a minute, it’s not safe.

What a farcical shambles. – Owl

Wrong boil water advice given to some Devon homes

A water company has apologised after nearly 30 properties in Devon were wrongly told they could stop boiling their water after a parasite outbreak.

George Thorpe www.bbc.co.uk

South West Water (SWW) on Saturday lifted a boil water notice for 14,500 properties in Brixham after part of the network was given the all-clear.

About 2,500 properties in Hillhead, Kingswear and upper parts of Brixham are still being advised to boil their water.

However, some residents received a letter saying they could drink the tap water, only to get a separate message hours later advising them to keep boiling it.

SWW blamed an issue with its digital mapping system for the error and said it was offering an extra £75 compensation to people given the wrong advice.

It said 28 properties received the wrong notice.

There are 46 confirmed cases of cryptosporidiosis, an illness that causes diarrhoea, linked to the outbreak.

The first letter sent to residents said the UK Health Security Agency and the local environmental health department agreed the boil water notice could be lifted.

The second letter, seen by the BBC, warned the parasite was still in the area’s water supply and residents should continue boiling their water.

‘Sort yourselves out’

Rhian Manley said she received two notices, with the second letter arriving at about 22:00 BST.

She said the situation was “embarrassing” and could have had serious implications for residents.

“My message to South West Water is sort yourselves out and actually start working for the people who pay for you,” she added.

Conservative MP Anthony Mangnall, whose Totnes constituency covers Brixham, said the leaflet issue was another sign of how poor SWW’s communication had been.

He advised residents to look at a postcode checker, external on SWW’s website to see if they should boil their tap water or not.

“It is deeply disappointing that South West Water continues to frustrate residents with unclear communications,” he said.

‘Technical issue’

SWW apologised for the confusion caused by the conflicting letters.

“This was caused due to a technical issue with our digital mapping system,” it said.

“We also had a small number of customers in a localised area who, in error, received the wrong notice advising them that their property was no longer covered by the notice.”

The firm said it was contacting customers affected by the conflicting advice.

These customers would be receiving an extra £75 compensation, SWW said.

Dee Agirdici-Maher said she would use bottled water for the time being

Other residents in Brixham have said they are still worried about drinking tap water, saying they do not trust how clean it is.

Dee Agirdici-Maher, who lives near Alston and has been told she can drink her tap water again, said it was going to be “a while” before she trusts the water.

She said she would drink bottled water until she was “totally comfortable” with the supply.

“It’s going to take time,” she said.

She said the water company’s handling of the outbreak had been poor.

“Truthfully, with all the money that they’ve got, it shouldn’t have happened in the first place,” she said.

SWW on Saturday increased the level of compensation available for the remaining affected households, rising from £115 to £215.

However, it said it had been made aware of fraudulent calls being made to some customers.

The company said customers did not need to do anything to receive the payment as it would be paid straight into their accounts and urged people to report any suspicious calls.

“All household customers who have been issued with the boil water notice will receive their compensation by way of an automatic payment,” a SWW spokeswoman said.

“Where we hold direct debit details this will be made as an immediate payment, where we do not this will be added as a credit to the next available bill.”

David Harris, SWW’s drought and resilience director, said the water tank at Hillhead reservoir had been drained.

He said the tank, where tests confirmed the presence of cryptosporidium, would be thoroughly cleaned before being refilled.

A damaged valve on private land in the area was identified as the “possible cause of contamination” and it was isolated from the network, the company said.