Parasite outbreak costs water company owner £16.3m

A water parasite outbreak in Devon earlier this year cost South West Water's (SWW) parent company £16.3m, bosses have confirmed.

The outbreak of cryptosporidium in May saw about 100 confirmed cases of the diarrhoea-type illness in and around Brixham.

Pennon, the parent company of SWW, said the £16.3m went towards customer compensation, providing eight weeks' worth of bottled water for people affected, and to carry out “extensive interventions to clean and filter the network”.

Pennon said it made a £38.8m pre-tax loss in the six months to September.

Capital spending such as upgrading its water infrastructure, rose to £331.8m, up about a quarter on the same period last year.

Chief executive Susan Davy said: “When things go wrong, as they did for customers and businesses in and around Brixham earlier this year, we put it right with no excuses. But we know we have more to do."

Pennon has asked regulators to let it increase average consumer bills at South West Water by 23% across the next five years, with Ofwat’s final decision due in December.

SWW previously announced it had pledged £1.2m to help boost tourism and repair "reputational damage".

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