Water resources | South West Water

Types of water resources

When rain falls it’s our job to capture, store, transport and treat this precious resource. Our water resources are strictly managed to make sure we always have enough supply to match demand.

Below are some of the types of water resources that we manage.

Rivers

Across Devon and Cornwall, there’s approximately 4435 miles of rivers. Each one is home to numerous animals, plants and fish. We take water directly from rivers into our treatment works to turn it into drinking water you can enjoy.

Reservoirs

We own 23 reservoirs in Devon and Cornwall. Reservoirs are incredibly important in keeping us sustainable. Some reservoirs have pipes running to the water treatment works to provide them with water all year round. Some of our reservoirs can also release water into rivers to allow us to abstract it for treatment works downstream.

Boreholes/Groundwater

When it rains, water seeps into the ground. Depending on the geology of an area, some of the water is held within the rocks – this is groundwater. We can access this water by pumping it up through boreholes. Some of it emerges from the ground as springs from which we capture water in chambers and pipes. Collected groundwater is sent to the treatment works for processing. This water source is particularly important for the Isles of Scilly and East Devon.

The Sea

On St Mary's, Isles of Scilly, the sea also acts as a source of water. There's a desalination plant there where seawater is treated to remove the salt. This water is then transported for final treatment at the water treatment works. We're excited about introducing desalination on the mainland and the other four islands on the Isles of Scilly.

Conserving the supply

Water is a precious resource. We don’t like wasting water, and we’re doing a lot of work to stop leakage and reduce our operational consumption of water.