AN incident which led to thousands of South Devon households being told to boil their drinking water for weeks on end has been described as ‘an absolute freak accident’.

A faulty valve in the network between Brixham and Kingswear allowed cryptosporidium into the water system, exposing people to the risk of catching a bug which causes vomiting and diarrhoea.

Ian Lake, head of developer services for South West Water (SWW), told Teignbridge Council’s overview and scrutiny committee: ‘South West Water was not the reason for this. It was a third party.

‘An investigation is being undertaken, but it was in my humble opinion an absolute freak accident that occurred.’

The alarm was raised in May, and 17,000 households across Brixham, Kingswear and parts of Paignton were advised to boil their water. 

SWW set up depots to distribute free bottled water to people affected by the incident, and delivered supplies to vulnerable households.

It was only a week ago – almost two months after the first reports – that the final ‘boil water’ notice was lifted for the last affected homes closest to the water works.

Mr Lake was among SWW officials attending the meeting to answer questions about water issues in Teignbridge.

Head of community engagement Alan Burrows said there had been ‘emotive conversations’ around sewage spills and water quality, but SWW was on track to hit stringent targets to cut the number of incidents.

He pointed out that the water company was to blame for only 12 per cent of pollution spills, with the rest coming from sources including farms and factories.

His figures showed that fewer than half the storm overflows into the River Teign catchment area currently meet government standards, but millions of pounds is being invested to fix the others.

Cllr John Radford (SD Alliance, Kerswell with Coombe) said: ‘I don’t see any confidence going forward. A lot of promises have been made, but they have never been kept.’

And Cllr Chris Clarance (Ind, Shaldon and Stokeinteignhead) demanded: ‘What are you going to do to stop all these emergency discharges? We’ve got a major problem.’