South West Water unveils new water quality map

21st March 2023

‘Your Beach, Your Say, Our Investment’ will let communities have their say on the region’s beaches and help shape the priorities for investment at South West Water 

 

  WaterFit Live will share open information and help everyone in the South West have their say on how we all protect and improve beaches

 

Everyone in the South West is passionate about our beaches and South West Water want everyone to feel confident in bathing water quality. That is why they are reducing the use of storm overflows and launching WaterFit Live ahead of this year’s bathing season.

The WaterFit Live map is designed to share information about the region’s bathing beaches,  location and performance of storm overflows and the company’s plans to improve water quality.

South West Water hope that sharing information about water quality at people’s favourite beaches will help them feel confident about our beaches and the quality of the water. The new system forms part of the company’s commitment to share more information with customers on both environmental performance and investment plans at the beaches across South West’s 860 miles of coastline. 

WaterFit Live will also share useful information about beaches helping to explain how the network and storm overflows work through user friendly, easy to understand explanations, animations and FAQ’s. It will highlight South West Water’s focus on maintaining the South West’s 100% bathing water quality standards.   

Through ‘Your Beach, Your Say, Our Investment’ customers will be able to share knowledge about their local beach and help South West Water prioritise their next round of investment from 2025. 

Susan Davy, Group CEO Pennon (who own South West Water), said: “We want people to feel confident about the water quality at their favourite beach and to know we are serious about reducing the use of storm overflows. WaterFit Live is designed to share helpful information about bathing water quality, the improvements we are already making and future investments.  The beaches in the South West belong to those who live in the region, are loved by those who visit the South West, and this is all about ensuring we share data, listen to the views of those who care, and work together to invest where it’s needed most.”

South West Water plans on expanding WaterFit Live so that it also covers river water quality later this year. There are currently no designated bathing rivers in the region, but the company is working on pilots for both the rivers Dart and Tavy to learn what it will take to achieve this.

Notes to Editors:

Now more than ever, people are asking for information about their beaches and rivers so that they can make decisions about when to go in the water. That extends from information about rips currents and tides, to information about water quality. The RNLI welcome any move towards improving both water quality and transparency around what’s happening at our beaches and are pleased that South West Water are taking steps towards this through their WaterFit Live initiative/programme.  Steve Instance, RNLI Water Safety Lead  

Everyone, locals and visitors expect to be well informed, especially now we live in a digital world so that we can make our own decisions. Therefore the increased transparency created through WaterFit Live is welcomed, it will invite discussions based on fact, not rumours.  Malcolm Bell, interim Chair , Visit Cornwall  

As an environmental charity that protects and restores our rivers across the South West, Westcountry Rivers Trust fully support South West Water’s move towards greater transparency about the operation of sewage assets. We already collect a lot of data on the health of our rivers through our Citizen Science Investigation campaign but without data on the sources of potential pollution it is hard to show the cause, whether it be sewage, agriculture or other industries. Dr Laurence Couldrick, CEO of Westcountry Rivers Trust  

Cornwall Council is pleased to support the launch of South West Water’s WaterFit Live initiative which demonstrates a greater transparency with the sharing of information about storm overflows.  We encourage their commitment to make more information available for the public to understand storm overflows, why they exist and how they link in with bathing water quality on our beaches; together with sharing their plans for investment going forward to reduce the number of releases from their overflows.  We look forward to continuing to work with South West Water to help them develop this initiative which we hope will become a one stop shop where we can direct people to learn more about their local beaches and water quality. Bryan Skinner, Head of Transport, Environment and Maritime Infrastructure, Cornwall Council