Water supplies at risk due to leaks, firm warned
Press AssociationSouth West Water's repeated failure to tackle leaks is putting supplies at risk, regulators have warned.
Ofwat, the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Environment Agency wrote to the firm to warn leakage levels were 18.5% above forecast and had increased since the previous year.
The joint letter, seen by the BBC, said the leakage rate was "unacceptable" and placed customers "at a greater level of risk" given ongoing drought conditions.
South West Water said it was investing "significant resource" into finding and fixing leaks across the network and had repaired "more than 23,000 leaks" over the last 12 months.
"We're using a range of technologies including acoustic loggers, satellite monitoring, drones and specially trained leak detection dogs to find and repair leaks and strengthen supplies as quickly as possible," it said.
Parts of Devon, Cornwall, Dorset, Somerset, East Sussex and West Sussex are affected by severe drought.
Reservoir levels across the South West are starting to recover but the amount of rainfall in coming months would be paramount to them becoming full again, said South West Water.
In the letter to Pennon Group, which owns South West Water, regulators said leakage rates had increased on the previous year.
It said regulators would require the company's representatives to attend six-monthly progress meetings given the "extent and persistence of issues identified for South West Water".
The firm was warned further action would be taken where sufficient progress on addressing problems was "not demonstrated".
Press AssociationDevon County Council leader Julian Brazil said leaks put the environment and customers at risk of supply restrictions.
"Householders and businesses have been told to save water to avoid worse drought restrictions and that was all down to the dry weather," he said.
"Now we learn South West Water has been continually warned for seven years it's not doing its bit on leakage."