DWI reassures on drinking water safety following crypto incident

The Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI) has issued a statement emphasising the rigorous nature of the drinking water safety regime in England and Wales and the high quality of water supplies.

Referring to the cryptosporidium incident in Devon, chief inspector Marcus Rink said the DWI was throughly investigating and offered the reassurance that: “Incidences associated with Cryptosporidium in the water supply are thankfully rare, the last being nine years ago and this was an isolated incident.”

He went on to set out the rigorous nature of the source to tap quality and monitoring regime, with “drinking water quality verified by extensive compliance and operational sampling at all stages of treatment and distribution, including at the consumers’ tap”.

Rink pointed out compliance with the stringent regulatory standards is consistently high, with a rate of 99.97% compliance from nearly four million tests. He said the UK is one of only six nations in the world with the maximum score possible in the 2022 Environmental Performance Index (Yale University).

The statement was specifically in reference to the Devon incident. South West Water continues work to clean and restore the system that supplies Alston and the Hillhead area of Brixham following cryptosporidium detection on 13 May. The company said water quality samples have shown progress but further work is needed to fully remove any contamination.

Since the crypto story broke, there have been press reports about drinking water quality safety. And on 30 May, Thames Water issued a precautionary ‘do not drink’ notice to 616 households in Bramley in Surrey after detecting elevated levels of hydrocarbons in the supply. It has carried out additional sampling since a fuel leak from the village petrol station. The UK Health Security Agency said water containing hydrocarbons would have a “petrol like” odour and could cause nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain.

Two weeks ago, Thames Water confirmed there were no water quality failures from the Central Sydenham water zone after media reports on multiple cases of a sickness bug in Beckenham.