Latest South West Water statement on the Hillhead supply area

David Harris, Drought and Resilience Director at South West Water said:
“Over 200 South West Water staff and our contractors are on the ground today working to urgently resolve the situation in the Hillhead supply area, where we are still advising around 2,500 properties to boil their drinking water before consuming.

“We have already identified a probable cause at Hillhead – a damaged air valve on private farmland – and are urgently investigating how this happened. The Hillhead reservoir has been successfully drained, thoroughly cleaned, and we will start refilling today. We will also start flushing the wider Hillhead network today, which is being continuously monitored as we work to eliminate any traces of cryptosporidium. We will not lift the boil water notice in Hillhead until we and our public health partners are completely satisfied it is safe to do so.

“I want to again apologise for the immense disruption this is causing. This should not have happened, and I promise we will fix this problem as soon as possible.

“Yesterday we advised around 14,500 properties in the Alston supply area they no longer need to boil their drinking water. This followed several water quality monitoring results this week confirming no cryptosporidium. I want to reassure customers that daily water quality monitoring will continue across Hillhead and Alston supply areas.

“As of last night, our team has successfully completed letterbox deliveries informing residents who are still subject to a boil water notice. We continue to urge customers who are unsure whether they are still affected by a boil water notice to check South West Water’s website, or to call our dedicated customer contact team today.

We will not lift the boil water notice in Hillhead until we and our public health partners are completely satisfied

“We know the profound impact this is having on families. Compensation has been increased to £215 – almost half the amount of an annual average bill – for those customers still subject to boil water advice in the Hillhead, upper Brixham and Kingswear areas. This payment will be made automatically where we have direct debit details or applied as a credit to their next water bill where we do not.

“We also know this situation is already having an impact on tourism ahead of the Bank Holiday weekend and stand ready to support our local traders and businesses. I urge affected businesses to contact our customer service team on 03332 343 293 so we can fast track any compensation claims.

“Our bottled water stations in Broadsands, Freshwater Quarry and Churston will remain open to customers across the Brixham area. We have handed out and delivered almost 480,000 bottles of water since the start of the incident, including direct deliveries to vulnerable customers and schools, hospitals and care homes.”