MPs' anger as South West Water boss faces the music

'The water company has no shame' 

A Devon MP has described South West Water chief Susan Davy’s comments to MPs explaining last year’s Brixham water scandal as ‘insulting’.

Speaking to an environment select committee in parliament, the water company boss said she understood how devastating the parasite contamination incident was.

Hundreds of people fell ill and several were hospitalised after a bug called cryptosporidium got into water supplies at Kingswear. Thousands of homes across the village and nearby Brixham were told for months to boil their water before drinking it.

Tourism businesses were badly hit as reports of the outbreak spread nationwide.

Ms Davy, who is the chief executive of SWW’s parent company - the Exeter-based Pennon Group - told MPs: “I absolutely understand how devastating that incident was for that community and for the customers who were poorly. It was a really horrible time for them.

“I am always sorry when something happens either to our customers or to the environment."

There were 194 individual pollution incidents across the group between 2023 and 2024, she said, adding: “I absolutely regret and do not condone those incidents and pollutions that we had.

"We have hundreds of treatment works and thousands of pumping stations and, from time to time, things do go wrong."

After the committee session, North Devon Liberal Democrat MP Ian Roome said: “It is frankly insulting that the CEO of South West Water could pass off her company’s widespread environmental vandalism as ‘time to time’ occurrences. 

“After one day of rain this weekend, beaches across my whole constituency are currently lit up red. South West Water has no shame. 

“The previous Conservative government let water companies get away with it for far too long and this Labour government is doing little to fix it. Enough is enough.

“Families across the south west should not have to constantly consider whether it’s safe to enjoy our magnificent beaches in case they have been polluted with human waste. They deserve better than this.”

And South Devon’s Liberal Democrat MP Caroline Voaden added: “Susan Davy's comments about the cryptosporidium outbreak in Brixham and those who became ill were galling.

“I’ve repeatedly called on South West Water to carry out random testing in the water supply in Brixham and Kingswear since this crisis. Susan Davy's response to the committee this morning was disappointing and shows that South West Water still do not understand the gravity of what happened and what needs to be done now. 

“Her warm words about customer satisfaction will ring hollow for my constituents. Whether it’s forcing disgruntled customers to sign NDAs or overseeing double the number of pollution incidents as the second-worst-performing company, South West Water is heading to the bottom in every department, and it is billpayers who are paying the price.”