Water is a precious resource. We rely on the natural water cycle to capture, treat, process and store it to ensure we can provide clean, safe drinking water to our customers. 

Climate change and an increasing population in our region has made water resources more in demand than ever. The Environment Agency is also predicting a growing shortfall of water in the coming years, leading to a deficit of almost 5 billion litres of water a day by 2050.

This tells us, and we know, that we have work to do to ensure we provide a resilient water supply across our area. This has already seen us repurposing disused quarries and investing in desalination in Cornwall for the first time whilst continuing to find and fix more leaks than ever before. This will boost the region’s resources in Cornwall by around 45% and in Devon by around 30% by 2025.

However, any water we take from the natural environment comes at a cost – to the planet and people. 

Therefore, we need to make sure we only take the water we need, and to do that we need your help. We're working hard to help our customers use less water in their day-to-day lives, and we're working hard to continue to ensure resilient water supplies.

Through the Water is Precious campaign, we're asking customers to use water more efficiently, and we're playing our part by investing £125 million to increase water resources.

How you can help

What next?

We're committed to Water is Precious for the business and for our customers. It recognises the importance of our landscapes, the flora and fauna they support, and the role and impact we have as we take, capture, store and distribute water. 

Water from the tap is cheap, less than a penny per litre, but it does have a real cost.  We hope that you appreciate our thinking on this and will support us as we continue to invest in facilities, in conserving and where we can enhancing the landscapes in which we operate and as we launch new tariffs and support.