South West Lakes Trust is a charity set up by South West Water in April 2000 to run leisure and recreation activities on its reservoirs. It manages 50 inland waters and facilities vary from site to site but include camping, walks, fishing and watersports. The lakes have hosted

• Commercial events, including exhibitions, county fairs and music gala evenings.
• Fundraising and charity events, including dragon boat racing.
• Sporting events including the Iron Man Triathlon.
• Youth group gatherings and social jamborees.

Recent events include:

• A 100 mile cycling event, the Exmoor Beast Sportive, held at Wimbleball
• Tamar Lakes were the venue for young carers from north Devon to enjoy a respite activity organised by the Carewise project.
• Thirty Westcountry schools took part in the Marine Challenge Race Day at Roadford Lake. This helped students to understand the challenges of working in marine engineering.
• In conjunction with the Calvert Trust and the Forestry Commission, South West Lakes Trust has created the UK's first all-ability 'trim trail' at Wistlandpound reservoir
• To celebrate the acquisition of Park Lake, South West Water sponsored two days of water-skiing for 80 local people with special needs.
• South West Lakes Trust has also built a new fishing lodge at Kennick reservoir and opened a new rowing boat store at Stithians Lake.

Many lakes and their surrounding land are ideal for coarse or trout angling, watersports, picnicking and relaxing. In 2009 new angling and watersports facilities were opened at Upper Tamar Lake which now hosts a number of clubs including fishing and model yatching. 

In June 2009 Roadford Lake was the location again for the South West Schools Marine Challenge. School teams in Key Stages 3 and 4 work with technology based companies to design, build and race remote controlled boats.