South West Water was “not honest” about water supply ahead of Cornwall and Devan falling into drought in 2022, the Environment Agency has ruled.
“South West Water were not honest, open and transparent with regulators about their drought projections and potential risks to security of supply,” the Environment Agency wrote in a July email to Ofwat.
It said “South West Water acted too late” in response to the drought, and that this “presented a genuine risk of loss of supply in West Cornwall”.
The emails were obtained by the Greenpeace investigation bureau Unearthed.
Unearthed found statements from the Environment Agency which said that the lack of preparation before the drought had “a huge impact” on staff resources at the watchdog and “undoubtedly” had an impact on customers and the environment.
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A South West Water spokesperson 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 10 million visitors to the region.”
Greenpeace UK political campaigner Megan Corton Scott commented: “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.”
