Locals in Brixham are still reeling from the parasitic outbreak that saw it suffer a huge decline in tourism.

The seaside town was gripped by diarrhoea and sickness in May 2024 after cryptosporidium contaminated the water supply.

South West Water issued a boil notice to 16,000 households and businesses, telling them not to use tap water without boiling and cooling it first.

The water company had to pay out £16.3 million in compensation and promised a further £1.2 million to try to help the beleaguered tourism industry recover after the harbourfront emptied as scared holidaymakers cancelled their summer plans.

More than 34km of water pipes were flushed 27 times by more than a thousand workers over eight weeks.

But locals afflicted by the infected water say they have struggled to receive compensation and continue to live in fear of the water supply.

Tanya Matthews, a mother of four, was made seriously ill by the outbreak.

She suffered from symptoms so severe she had to undergo a medical procedure and still suffers today.

She said: “When I have bad days, I don’t want to leave the house, and I know, I’m not the only one who’s still suffering."

“At the start theyn believed that there was only going to be 100 people or so claiming compensation. It was a higher number than that." She said.

“They were giving people higher amounts of money and when you live in a small town people talk. People that have had lasting illnesses are being paid a pittance compared to what was dished out at the beginning.”

She no longer drinks tap water and will only drink bottled water.

Tanya, 43, said: “It’s a psychological thing now. It doesn’t matter where I am.

“My whole house was ill. Fortunately for the rest of my family, they were only sick for three weeks or just under a month, but I was the worst affected.

“Pretty much every single house on the street I live on had an illness.

“I cannot even explain the diarrhoea; it was worse than norovirus.”

The town’s tourism industry also suffered as a result.

Tanya said: “The town was a lot emptier and there were a lot of cancellations."

"They say lessons have been learnt and they’re going to be more productive and try to build a relationship with customers but there’s nothing - no communication whatsoever.”

"She said she felt disrespected throughout the process."

She said residents had just one ticketed meeting with the water company, which was packed and advertised just a couple of days prior.

“We want to know what’s going on”, she said, as they saw the reservoir was still being emptied. “It still looks like a building site. I know when it’s being emptied because the water runs down the road. Why are they doing that if it’s okay?”

A spokesperson for South West Water said: "While we can’t undo what happened, we have already made improvements to make sure it cannot happen here again.

"Our focus is on the future for customers and communities, and we are working to support local tourism in the area."

"We are carrying out routine maintenance on the Hillhead tank, as we do with all of our service reservoirs across the region.

"We have issued around £2.4 million in compensation to customers as a result of the incident.

"In line with our customer promise, we have settled all claims as soon as we have received the information needed from claimants.

"We have settled over 97.5 per cent of all the claims that have been made relating to this incident and we are working to settle any remaining claims."