Regulators have warned South West Water that repeated failures to tackle leaks is putting supplies at risk, the BBC reports.
Ofwat, the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Environment Agency wrote to the firm to warn leakage levels were 18.5% above forecast and had increased since the previous year.
The joint letter described the leakage rate as “unacceptable” and placed customers “at a greater level of risk” amid ongoing drought.
The firm was warned further action would be taken where sufficient progress on addressing problems was “not demonstrated”.
South West Water said it was investing “significant resource” into finding and fixing leaks across the network and had repaired “more than 23,000 leaks” over the last 12 months.
The company said: “We’re using a range of technologies including acoustic loggers, satellite monitoring, drones and specially trained leak detection dogs to find and repair leaks and strengthen supplies as quickly as possible.”
Recently, parts of Devon, Cornwall, Dorset, Somerset, East Sussex and West Sussex have been declared to be in drought.
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