South West Water: UK water firm reports sewage discharges have increased and blames wet weather - after CEO given 58% pay hike

South West Water owner Pennon said that the number of sewage discharges had increased over the half year to September 26. It blamed “the third wettest October to August since records began” on the increase in sewage spills as it said the rainy weather had left groundwater levels “exceptionally high”.

However, it added that action to focus on preventing sewage pollution on Britain’s beaches had meant a reduction during the peak summer bathing season, saying that average spills were at one of its lowest levels since 2016. Pennon has come under fire after announcing in June that its chief executive Susan Davy saw her pay package jump 58% after picking up a £298,000 shares bonus, despite pollution incidents nearly doubling at South West Water (SWW) last year.

Pennon’s annual report showed that Ms Davy’s total pay jumped to £860,000 in 2023-24 from £543,000 the previous year. The group also courted controversy this year when it increased its full-year dividend payout to investors, despite reducing it by £2.4 million after it was handed a record fine for sewage spills. SWW was fined £2.2 million in April last year for illegal sewage spills across Devon and Cornwall spanning four years.

Pennon also announced that South West Water took a hit of about £16 million from the parasite contamination crisis in Devon earlier this year. The outbreak in May left some people in hospital and hundreds of others were ill after contamination of the water supply by cryptosporidium, a parasite which causes sickness and diarrhoea.

About 17,000 households and businesses in the Brixham area of Devon, supplied by SWW were issued with a “boil water” notice on May 15, as scores of reported cases of illness emerged in the town. The notice, instructing them not to use their tap water for drinking without boiling and cooling it first, remained in place for eight weeks for some households in the area.

Pennon said: “The cryptosporidium water quality event in Brixham this summer was an incredibly rare event for SWW and we worked swiftly and diligently to identify the issue, clean the network and restore full supply to all customers.” It said it had cleaned and flushed the network 27 times, replacing sections of the 18-mile network.

NationalWorld has contacted SWW for comment.