Water firm fined for sickness bug

70,000 homes in Gwynedd and Anglesey were hit by bug outbreak

Dwr Cymru has been fined £60,000 after admitting supplying unfit water that left hundreds ill in north Wales.

In total, 231 people who drank water from a Snowdonia reservoir suffered from sickness after the outbreak of the cryptosporidium bug in November 2005.

The company accepted it should have begun monitoring for the stomach bug much sooner than it did, Caernarfon magistrates court was told.

The company was also ordered to pay £69,000 in costs.

The outbreak of cryptosporidium focused on the Llyn Cwellyn reservoir at Rhyd-ddu, which serves 70,000 homes in parts of Gwynedd and Anglesey.

However, while health officials were confident the reservoir was the most likely candidate, tests at the lake always proved negative.

At the hearing in Caernarfon, Dwr Cymru pleaded guilty to four charges of supplying water unfit for human consumption.

The board of directors are truly devastated and sorry John Charles Rees QC Defending Dwr Cymru

John Charles Rees QC, defending Dwr Cymru, said the company had been "slow" in implementing monitoring and sampling of water in 2005.

But he added: "Even if the defendant had exercised all reasonable care and due diligence the outbreak wouldn't have been prevented."

The court was told that the outbreak had led to a review of the way the whole water industry worked, and as a result regulations had been changed.

"It was truly an unusual event," added the defence barrister.

He said that the managing director and board of directors were "truly devastated and sorry".

Water had to be boiled for two months in affected areas

Gwynfor Jones, chair of the bench at the court, said the outbreak had caused "catastrophic suffering" to the public.

"The aggravating features were the failures to heed warnings. There was a failure to recognise these in time," he said.

Prosecuting for the Drinking Water Inspectorate, Alistair Webster QC described how one woman suffered boils, diarrhoea and depression after contracting the bug.

The company still faces legal action from a number of those who fell ill during the outbreak. The defence team assured the court that Dwr Cymru would settle all claims for compensation "where medically proven".

In a statement after the hearing, the company said it accepted that more could have been done to understand the risks.

"We should have started monitoring for cryptosporidium sooner than we did. We have learned some important lessons." it said.