Ministers were warned that Cryptosporidium posed the second biggest risk to England’s water supply a year before the current Devon outbreak, MailOnline can reveal.
A report from the government’s Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI) suggested the parasite threat was second only to suppliers running out of drinking water altogether.
DWI’s assessment was that not enough was being done to mitigate the risk of Cryptosporidium infesting drinking water supplies.
A separate DWI report in December warned that “poor sampling” was jeopardizing chances of detecting contamination such as feces in drinking water supplies.
It comes as hundreds of Devon residents report suffering from a wave of diarrhea and agonizing stomach cramps linked to the faeces-borne Cryptosporidium parasite apparently infiltrating the county’s drinking water.
Cryptosporidium parasites are protected by a thick layer that allows them to survive in chlorinated pool water.
Residents of Brixham, Boohay, Kingswear, Roseland and north-east Paignton in Devon were asked to boil water as a precaution.
Although only 22 cases of infected people have been officially detected, the real total is expected to be higher.
Experts have told MailOnline that such outbreaks are rare in the UK, but aging water infrastructure, which increases the chances of contaminated livestock faeces or untreated human sewage entering drinking water, means that These types of incidents are increasingly likely.
The December DWI Report identified failures 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 this type of sampling to be one of the best ways to detect the possible presence of more dangerous pathogens such as cryptosporidium.
The DWI document says: “This quarter there were several coliform failures at the treatment plants.”
“A recurring theme was the poor quality of sampling facilities that are not representative of the water supplied.”
The report goes on to say that “poor sampling facilities” create a financial burden on water companies trying to investigate the safety of drinking water.
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South West Water has apologized to customers and provided detailed advice on how to remove disease-causing organisms from the water.
He 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 resiliency in their systems, putting consumers at risk,” it said.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) said the DWI report had taken action with individual water companies to respond to the issues identified in its 2022 report.
A spokesperson added: “We are aware of the current situation affecting South West Water’s drinking water supply in the Brixham, Devon area and understand the challenges this is causing residents.
‘South West Water, in consultation with the UK Drinking Water Inspectorate and Health Safety Agency, are investigating the incident.
‘We remain in close contact with South West Water to ensure they are taking appropriate action to investigate as quickly as possible and provide support to residents.
“We can assure residents that boiled water is safe and ask them to follow recommended precautionary measures when boiling it.”
A DWI spokesperson added they were investigating both the outbreak and the supplier South West Water.
“We are actively investigating the cause, the extent of the contamination and the actions taken by the water company,” they said.
Residents in affected areas of Devon have been asked to boil their water before drinking it in a bid to prevent more people becoming infected.
Cryptosporidium infection causes people to suffer weeks of diarrhea and stomach cramps so painful that one woman compared them to “childbirth.”
Experts told MailOnline there was no need for people in other parts of the country to boil drinking water, but added that contamination events like this “should simply never happen” in a developed country like the UK.
They also warned that the infection could spread beyond the county if people visiting the area before the alarm was raised became ill and passed it on to others.
Experts told this website that the source of the Devon outbreak is likely the result of contaminated livestock faeces spilling into water supplies due to heavy rain.
Professor Paul Hunter, a renowned infectious diseases expert at the University of East Anglia who has advised the WHO on drinking water standards, said human error was also a likely factor.
“Problems like this do not occur in a perfectly functioning and well-managed water treatment system,” he said.
“They happen because someone made a mistake somewhere or something broke that shouldn’t have happened.”
Brixham, home to around 17,000 people, is at the epicenter of the Devon outbreak.
The water company said Hillhead Reservoir and the wider Alston area are being investigated as a possible cause of the outbreak, an area from which about 40,000 residents draw their water supply.
A South West Water spokesperson said: ‘Customers in Alston and the Hillhead area of Brixham are advised to boil their drinking water before consuming it, following new Cryptosporidium test results.
‘We are issuing this notice following small traces of the organism identified overnight 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 the inconvenience caused and will continue to keep customers and businesses informed. Bottled water stations will be installed in affected areas as soon as possible.’
Doctors technically call cryptosporidium infection cryptosporidiosis.
Patients often have to endure these symptoms for two weeks before they finally clear from their systems.
But some patients may experience longer bouts of illness in those with weakened immune systems, such as cancer patients.
Sufferers may also experience periods of false hope in which their symptoms disappear for a few days, making them believe they have finally overcome 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 they wait until their symptoms disappear.
People usually become infected by contact with feces containing the parasite, whether from humans or animals, which then enter their mouth.
These infected faeces often come into contact with people by contaminating lakes, streams, swimming pools and, as appears to be the case in Devon, water supplies.
People can also get it by caring for people infected with the parasite, especially young children.
The risk of water supplies becoming infected is greatest after periods of heavy rain and when animals are giving birth, such as in the calving season.
Other possible sources of infection are contact with infected milk or with vegetables that have been fertilized with manure from infected animals and have not been thoroughly washed.
Patients with the infection are told not to go to work or school until they have been symptom-free for at least two days to avoid transmitting the virus to others.
Because the parasite can survive in fecal matter for long periods of time, patients are advised not to go swimming until two weeks after the diarrhea has stopped.
This includes both natural bodies of water and swimming pools, as traces of dried infected excrement can be removed from an infected swimmer’s anus.
Infected people can shed up to 100 million cryptosporidium germs in a single bowel movement, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
And swallowing just 10 is enough to make you sick.
