South West Water’s owner has announced that normal service is now available to 85% of their customers, after unsafe drinking led to over 100 cases of waterborne diseases in Devon. It also increased its dividend payout to its shareholders.
South West Water warned 16,000 households and business owners not to drink tap water without first boiling it and cooling it.
Pennon Group, owner of South West water said that it offered to compensate all customers who received a notice of boiling water £215 per household, via a bill credit or bank payment, at a cost of £3.5m.
The UK Health Security Agency confirmed 46 cases in Brixham, and more than 100 people reported symptoms including diarrhoea. stomach pains, and dehydration.
South West Water lifted its boil-water notice on Saturday for 14500 Brixham properties, but apologized after adding 28 properties where the water supply is still unsafe, leading to anger from residents. Residents were initially told that they could drink the tap water but received a second message a few hours later telling them to continue boiling it.
The company said the error was due to a glitch in its digital mapping system and offered an additional £75 compensation for people who were given incorrect advice.
Susan Davy is the CEO of the FTSE-listed company. She said: “We’re 100% focused on restoring a safe supply of water to people and businesses around Brixham.
“Normal service is now available for 85% customers. We won’t give up until we get the drinking water back to the standard that all of our customers deserve.”
She stated that the company’s operations teams “work tirelessly, around the clock, to deliver this”.
Davy said that Pennon has cut its final payout by £2.4m, which is equivalent to South West Water’s record court fine from last year. “This shows that we’re listening”, he added. The total dividend payout, however, is up on last year. It’s 44.37p per share, or £126.9m, compared to £111.7m.
South West Water is responsible for providing water and sewer services to over 1.8 million people in Devon, Cornwall, and parts of Dorset and Somerset.
According to the Environment Agency, the company was fined £2,15m in April last year for pumping sewage in rivers and into the sea over a period of four years in Devon and Cornwall. This was due to “numerous deficiencies” that were common in the company’s implementation of its management systems.
Pennon reported a profit before taxes of £16.8m – the same as in last year – and a loss statutory of £9.1m.
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