Caroline Voaden: It's time for answers on tainted drinking water

Finally, after 16 months, South West Water (SWW) will be brought to court to explain its role and actions in the outbreak of cryptosporidium, which caused so much damage to Brixham, Kingswear and beyond last year. 

The outbreak affected the whole community; it damaged businesses, it hurt the local economy, and it made people ill. It’s taken a long time to get to this point, but finally, we are going to see SWW brought to account by the Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI). 

The DWI is an independent regulator of drinking water quality in England and Wales. It began its investigation into the actions of SWW last year, and as yet we haven’t had any idea what its interpretation would be of SWW’s behaviour before and during the outbreak. 

But last weekend, we received our first hint at what the investigation may have uncovered. 

On Friday 5^th September, the regulator announced that following its investigation into the crypto outbreak, a court summons has been issued to SWW for prosecution for potential offences under section 70(1) of the Water Industry Act 1991. The case is set for Thursday 2^nd October at Exeter Magistrates Court. 

This section states: “where a water undertaker’s supply system is used for the purposes of supplying water to any premises and that water is unfit for human consumption, the relevant persons shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction, or on conviction on indictment, to a fine.” In other words, it establishes a criminal offence for a water company to supply water that is unfit for human consumption. 

In his brief comments following the announcement, Marcus Rink, the chief inspector of the DWI, noted that “the Brixham incident was serious with significant impact on the public and the wider community”. Sadly, many of you know just how significant it was. 

More than 140 people were confirmed to have cryptosporidiosis, which can cause diarrhoea, stomach pains and vomiting, and typically lasts for about two weeks. But it’s likely this figure hides many more people whose cases weren’t officially confirmed.  Four people were hospitalised at the time. Many still do not trust their drinking water, and continue to use bottled water. 

About 16,000 households and businesses in the Brixham area were issued with a boil water notice by SWW. 

The contamination event caused mass disruption, with schools shutting and visitors cancelling bookings en masse. In an acknowledgement of this impact, SWW announced a £1.2m Destination Marketing Recovery Fund last November. Managed by the English Riviera BID company, this fund is dedicated to restoring booking levels and addressing the lasting effect of the outbreak. 

Alongside the economic and health impact, the outbreak also inflicted terrible reputational damage on the already beleaguered water industry. A recent study found that public trust in the sector is at an all time low. Before recess, the Government signalled it was going to act to rectify this, starting by abolishing the overall industry regulator, Ofwat. The Liberal Democrats have long called for this, and I will continue to push for the creation of a new regulator with the powers to hold rogue firms to account. 

It's vital we get to the bottom of what exactly SWW knew about the parasite’s presence in the water, and when, and why it initially told the public the water was safe to drink when it wasn’t. 

I hope some of the above questions will be answered in court. This case could lead to prosecutions, and it will be interesting to see whether the court feels this is appropriate for an incident that led to hundreds of people becoming ill, some of whom are still suffering from symptoms today. 

If you wish to contact me about this or another issue you are facing, please do so at: caroline.voaden.mp@parliament.uk 

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