Thames Water assessments for vomiting bug contamination as households fall sick

Thames Water has despatched samples of water for lab testing after dozens of individuals reported turning into unwell with abdomen cramps, vomiting and diarrhoea in south-east London.

Earlier this month, unsafe consuming water led to more than 100 cases of a waterborne disease in Devon, with individuals requested to boil their water due to contamination fears.

After cryptosporidium, a illness that may trigger signs resembling diarrhoea and vomiting, was detected within the water provide within the Brixham space of Devon 10 days in the past, 17,000 households and companies had been advised by South West Water not to use their tap water for drinking without boiling and cooling it first.

Now residents in Beckenham have reported being struck by a abdomen bug which is inflicting days of vomiting and diarrhoea. They embrace a four-year-old boy struggling days of vomiting, and an grownup lady who was so unwell she went to hospital with abdomen ache, vomiting and dehydration.

Katie Cox, a TV producer who lives within the space, mentioned: “I used to be unwell two weeks in the past with what I assumed was a abdomen bug.

It was a great week earlier than I used to be capable of eat once more correctly. Since then, the South West Water contamination has come to gentle and I grew to become involved that possibly there’s something in our water.”

Complete households have reported turning into unwell, and concern it could be brought on by a bug within the water. After reporting the problem to Thames Water, individuals who have been unwell mentioned technicians got here to take samples of their faucet water. Thames Water confirmed its technicians collected samples, which have been despatched for laboratory evaluation.

Thames Water mentioned: “Our technicians collected samples from a property within the space on Tuesday 22 Could following prospects contacting the enterprise. Preliminary on website testing carried out by our accredited technician didn’t point out an aesthetic difficulty with the water, additional samples had been additionally collected for laboratory evaluation and outcomes confirmed no considerations.

“Clients can discover details about their water provide by inputting their postcode on our website. Ought to anybody be involved about their faucet water, we’d encourage them to contact us.”

A spokesperson mentioned: “We take the standard of our water extraordinarily severely – it’s the highest high quality consuming water on the earth – and since 2010 greater than 99.95% of assessments taken from prospects’ faucets met the usual required by UK and European laws. Yearly, we feature out greater than 500,000 assessments.”

Labour’s shadow atmosphere secretary, Steve Reed, mentioned: “Our water business is damaged. Simply days in the past, a parasite outbreak was making individuals sick in Devon, now [Beckenham’s] consuming water might not be protected to drink.”

In Devon, South West Water mentioned on 14 Could that the water was protected to drink earlier than reversing this recommendation a day later. The enterprise mentioned information from assessments confirmed handled water leaving its remedy works was not contaminated, however additional assessments in a single day discovered small traces of cryptosporidium.

In Brixham, 2,500 properties stay underneath boil faucet water notices because the system continues to be flushed, and there was no date given to these properties for when the water shall be protected to drink once more.

David Harris, South West Water’s drought and resilience director, mentioned: “We is not going to elevate that boil water discover till it’s protected to take action.”