Water firm confident in supply for next 25 years

South West Water said it was confident it would have enough water resources for the region for the next 25 years.

The firm was speaking at a meeting of West Devon Borough Council's Overview and Scrutiny Committee, where members raised concerns about how the government's targets on housebuilding will impact the water and sewerage network.

The government plans to build 1.5 million new homes over the next five years and West Devon is expecting about 400 more a year.

Head of local government liaison for South West Water Alan Burrows said people use more water in the South West than other parts of the country.

"There is a lot we can do to reduce demand," he said.

"We also look at solutions like moving water from slightly wetter places to dryer places in the region and increasing abstraction."

Water abstraction plants remove water from natural sources such as rivers, lakes or from underground.

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, the company has pledged to invest £2.8bn in water quality and resilience up to 2030 and aims to reduce spills at storm overflows to less than 10 per year by 2040.

The committee was told that of the 90 storm overflows in West Devon, 33 meet new government targets and all storm overflow investment work would be completed by 2040.

It heard pollution incidents had dropped to five in West Devon last year and there have been no serious ones since 2020.

South West Water said all 54 sewage treatments works in West Devon were compliant and the last failure was in 2017 at Mary Tavy treatment works.

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