Reported by The Guardian
With parts of region served by company in severe drought still, regulators give it six weeks to come up with action plan
Repeated failures by South West Water to tackle leaks are putting customers at higher risks of losing water supplies as parts of the region remain in severe drought, regulators have said.
In a warning to the privatised company that serves 1.8 million people across the south-west of England , the regulators said it had been failing to meet targets to reduce leaks and repair burst pipes for seven years.
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“Leakage is 18.5% above forecast … and increased since the previous year. Given the ongoing drought conditions, these shortcomings are placing customers at a greater level of risk. This is not acceptable,” said Ofwat, the Environment Agency and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in a letter to the company.
The letter emerged as the National Drought Group prepared to meet on Thursday, with about 82% of England still in drought , and severe drought declared in parts of Devon, Cornwall, Dorset, Somerset, East Sussex and West Sussex. The Met Office has said 120% of typical rainfall is needed over seven months to bring the country fully out of drought.
South West Water leaks 113.5m litres of water a day from its pipes and infrastructure, the equivalent of 45 Olympic swimming pools. Leakage is 5.7m litres a day higher than last year and poses a risk to customer’s security of supply, the regulators’ letter says.
The continued severe drought in many areas of the region affects about 325,000 people and thousands of businesses in Exeter and mid and east Devon . They are at risk of having their supplies regularly cut off over the coming weeks and months, which could lead to school closures and economic losses.
South West Water has written to households in those areas urging them to reduce their water usage to help secure supplies. The company does not acknowledge the contribution that the scale of its own leakage is making to the risk of outages.
In the joint letter to the company dated…