South West Water is confident it will have enough water resources for the region for the next 25 years, and building new reservoirs would be a last resort, writes Alison Stephenson.

A representative of the water company 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 would 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 400 more a year.

Head of local government liaison for South West Water Alan Burrows said people used more water in the South West than other parts of the country but this could be mitigated through education, building regulation controls and working with manufacturers of high-use washing machines.

“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.

The Gatherley plant on the River Tamar moves water to Roadford Reservoir which serves South West Devon, Plymouth and North Devon.

Mr Burrows said there are new water resources in Cornwall in old quarry and clay mining areas and desalination (which treats seawater to produce drinking water) is being explored.

But strategic waste water asset manager for South West Water Jane O’ Connor said the 1.5 million homes announced by the Government took the company a bit by surprise.

Although there was £700 million of national funding for sewerage network improvements and pumping stations, the money is not to increase treatment capacity, Ms O’Connor said.

“What proportion of homes could be here in the South West region and where they are going we don’t know. Five years is a very short timeline for us, so we need to reach out to local authorities to see where we can act.”

Cllr Holly Greenberry-Pullen (Lib Dem, Tavistock North) asked how the company would manage ‘water poverty’, claiming the area has the most significantly diverse demographic between wealth and poverty.

Mr Burrows said the company had £200 million in its business plan to address affordability.

The company has pledged to invest £2.8 billion in water quality and resilience up to 2030 and aims to reduce spills at storm overflows to less than ten per year by 2040.

It followed court appearances for illegal sewage discharges and environmental permit breaches.

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, ten years ahead of target.

Work is being concentrated on bathing waters and shellfish waters, which customers had asked to be a priority, of which none are in West Devon.

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 the 54 sewage treatments works in West Devon are compliant and the last failure was in 2017 at Mary Tavy treatment works.