The government was warned by the environmental body last year of the catastrophic risk of cryptosporidium contamination hitting Britain’s water supplies
Ministers were warned that cryptosporidium posed the second biggest risk to England’s water supply a year before the current outbreak in Devon, MailOnline can reveal.
A report from the government’s Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI) suggested that the threat of the parasite was second only to suppliers’ complete depletion of drinking water.
The DWI assessment was that not enough was being done to limit the risk of cryptosporidium contaminating drinking water supplies.
A separate DWI report from December warned that “substandard sampling” would compromise the chances of detecting contaminants such as feces in the drinking water supply.
It comes as hundreds of Devon residents report suffering from a spate of diarrhea and painful stomach cramps linked to the fecal-borne parasite cryptosporidium which is apparently infiltrating the county’s drinking water.
Cryptosporidium parasites are protected by a thick shell that allows them to survive in chlorinated pool water
Locals in Brixham, Boohay, Kingswear, Roseland and north-east Paignton in Devon were all told to boil water as a precaution
Although only 22 cases of infection have been officially detected, the actual number is predicted to be higher.
Experts have told MailOnline that such outbreaks are rare in Britain, but aging water infrastructure increases the chance of contaminated livestock feces or raw human sewage entering drinking water, making such incidents more likely.
The December DWI report identified errors by water suppliers in what is known as coliform sampling.
Coliforms are bacteria whose presence indicates contamination of water supplies, including some forms that indicate the presence of human and animal feces.
Experts consider such sampling to be one of the best ways to detect the potential presence of more dangerous pathogens such as cryptosporidium.
The DWI document reads: “There were several coliform failures at treatment plants this quarter.”
‘A recurring theme was the poor quality of sampling facilities that are not representative of the water offered.’
The report went on to say that “substandard sampling facilities” pose a financial burden to water utilities trying to investigate the safety of drinking water.
South West Water apologized to customers and gave them detailed advice on how to remove disease-causing organisms from their water
It added that the end result was a potential danger to the public.
“There were also cases where companies were unable to inspect and repair assets due to a lack of resilience in their systems, putting consumers at risk,” the report said.
The Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) said the DWI report prompted action at individual water companies to respond to the issues identified in the 2022 report.
A spokesperson added: ‘We are aware of the ongoing situation affecting South West Water’s drinking water supply in the Brixham, Devon area and understand the challenges this is causing for residents.
‘South West Water is investigating the incident in consultation with the Drinking Water Inspectorate and the UK Health Security Agency.
‘We remain in close contact with South West Water to ensure they take the appropriate steps to investigate and provide support to residents as quickly as possible.
“We can assure residents that boiled water is safe and ask them to continue to follow the advised boiling precautions.”
A spokesperson for the DWI added that they are investigating both the outbreak and the supplier South West Water.
“We are actively investigating the cause, the extent of the contamination and the actions the water company is taking,” they say.
Residents in affected areas of Devon have been told to boil water before drinking to prevent more people becoming infected.
An infection with Cryptosporidium causes people to suffer from diarrhea for weeks and stomach cramps that are so painful that one woman compared it to ‘childbirth’.
Experts told MailOnline there was no need for people in other parts of the country to boil their drinking water, but added that these types of contamination events ‘simply should never happen’ in a developed country like Britain.
They also warned that the infection could potentially spread outside the province if people who visited the area before the alarm went off become sick and pass it on to others.
Experts told this website that the source of the outbreak in Devon is likely a result of contaminated livestock feces entering water supplies as a result of heavy rainfall.
Professor Paul Hunter, a renowned infectious disease expert from the University of East Anglia who has advised the WHO on drinking water standards, said human error was also a likely factor.
“These types of problems don’t occur in a perfect, well-managed and flowing water treatment system,” he said.
“They happen because someone somewhere made a mistake or something broke that shouldn’t have happened.”
Brixham, home to around 17,000 people, is at the epicenter of the outbreak in Devon.
The water company said the Hillhead Reservoir and the wider Alston area are being investigated as a possible source for the outbreak – an area where around 40,000 residents get their water supply.
A spokesperson for South West Water said: ‘Customers in Alston and the Hillhead area of Brixham are being advised to boil their drinking water before consuming it, following new test results for cryptosporidium.
‘We are issuing this notice following small traces of the organism identified last night and this morning.
‘We are working with the UK Health Security Agency and other public health partners to urgently investigate and eliminate the source.
‘We apologize for any inconvenience caused and will continue to keep customers and businesses informed. Bottled water stations will be set up in the affected areas as soon as possible.”
Doctors technically call a cryptosporidium infection cryptosporidiosis.
Patients often have to tolerate these symptoms for two weeks before they finally disappear from their system.
But some patients may experience longer periods of illness in people with weakened immune systems, such as cancer patients.
Victims may also experience periods of false hope where their symptoms disappear for a few days, leading them to think they have finally gotten over the infection, only for it to return.
Most people with cryptosporidiosis are not offered treatment and are instead told to drink plenty of fluids and minimize contact with other people while waiting for the symptoms to pass.
People are usually infected through contact with feces containing the parasite, either human or animal, which then enters their mouths.
These infected feces often come into contact with humans through contamination of lakes, streams, swimming pools and, as appears to be the case in Devon, water supplies.
People can also get it from caring for people infected with the parasite, especially young children.
The risk of water supplies becoming contaminated is greater after periods of heavy rainfall and when animals are giving birth, such as during lambing season.
Other possible sources of contamination include contact with contaminated milk, or from vegetables that have been fertilized with contaminated animal manure and not thoroughly washed.
Patients with the infection are told to stay away from work and school until they are symptom-free for at least two days, to avoid passing the bug to others.
Because the parasite can survive in the feces for a long time, patients are asked not to swim until two weeks after their diarrhea has stopped.
This includes both natural bodies of water and swimming pools, as traces of infected dried feces can wash down an infected swimmer’s anus.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, infected people can shed up to 100 million cryptosporidium germs in one bowel movement.
And swallowing just 10 is enough to make you sick.