Page 6 - Totnes News Today

Roughly 16,000 homes and businesses in Devon have been urged not to use their tap water for drinking without boiling and cooling it first.

South West Water says some 16,000 homes and firms are affected but it is clearing the contamination.

Hundreds of protesters demonstrated at lakes across the UK on Saturday to raise concerns about the state of the UK's water.

South West Water said around 14,500 households in the Alston supply area can now use their tap water safely.

A Devon MP has branded a water company's response to a parasite being found in the water supply as "contemptible and just generally incompetent".

The MP for the Brixham area of south Devon hit by a diarrhoea outbreak has branded South West Water’s response “disastrous” as the Mirror reveals the firm has been fined 18 times in the last decade

Torquay to Totnes (Season 1 Episode 13 of 20): Michael Portillo travels from Torquay to Totnes. Great British Railway Journeys airs on Yesterday at 12:00 PM, Friday 17 May. Michael Portillo travels from Torquay to Totnes

Families on Raddicombe Close in Brixham, South Devon were repeatedly assured that their water was safe to drink despite reporting that it had an unpleasant taste and was causing sickness.

Locals in Brixham, Boohay, Kingswear, Roseland and north-east Paignton in Devon were all told to boil water as a precaution.

The mystery illness is believed to be linked to cryptosporidium, a parasitic bug that that can enter water supplies via contaminated faecal matter.