South West Water has been accused of not being honest with the government about its drought preparations after parts of the country almost ran out of water in 2022, it has emerged.
The Environment Agency (EA) told the water industry regulator Ofwat that SWW was “not honest” with regulators about the risk a drought posed to the company’s water supplies and was inadequately prepared for the heatwave.
People in Devon and Cornwall were affected by months of hosepipe bans as reservoirs ran dangerously low during the dry spell in 2022. Three of SWW’s reservoirs fell to record lows during the drought.
The agency said the company showed complacency before the drought and “a lack of understanding of their own supply system”.
Documents obtained by Greenpeace’s investigations website Unearthed under freedom of information laws revealed the environmental watchdog’s scathing assessment of the water company’s drought preparedness. “SWW were not honest, open and transparent with regulators about their drought projections and potential risks to security of supply,” the EA wrote in a July email to Ofwat. The email said “SWW acted too late” in response to the drought, and that this “presented a genuine risk of loss of supply in west Cornwall”.
The EA said the company had a misunderstanding of its own supplies and thought it had so much water that it could pipe it to other regions. The agency told Ofwat SWW that showed “a lack of understanding of their own supply system, considering themselves as a potential water donor in the future, only to find the reverse is true”. The company’s latest plan states that it needs to close a gap of more than 200m litres of water a day by 2050 to meet demand.
Water was so scarce in 2022 that drastic saving measures banning all non-critical use were almost put in place. This would have meant a ban on ponds and swimming pools being refilled, people washing their cars and non-residential buildings being cleaned.
No new reservoirs have been built in the UK since the water industry was privatised in 1989, and some water companies have added to their profits by selling off existing facilities. Water companies have paid out £72bn in dividends since privatisation, borrowing £56bn and increasing bills by 40%.
The EA told Ofwat that new water sources need to “be considered, applied for and permitted during the drought instead of planned in advance”.
Megan Corton Scott, a political campaigner for Greenpeace UK, said: “South West Water have failed in tackling the sewage crisis, failed to prepare for drought, failed to even understand their own supply system and failed to be honest with the regulator, but they did succeed in raising shareholder dividends at the end of last year.
“Rishi Sunak promised tough enforcement and a more resilient water infrastructure. Given this platform of incompetence and blatant money grabbing, how long can the government stand idly by and let this company continue to control such a critical part of the nation’s resources?”
A spokesperson for SWW said: “We strongly reject any suggestion that we were not adequately prepared for the risk of drought or that we did not operate in good faith with the regulators.
“Despite facing a once-in-a-generation drought in the south-west, no customer went without water supply and we successfully maintained a robust supply of water to over 3.5 million customers and 10million visitors to the region.”
The company was fined over illegal dumping of sewage last year after investigations by the EA.
Last week, the owner of SWW, Pennon Group, bought Sutton and East Surrey Water in a deal worth £380m.
