South West Water completes sewer scheme in Exmouth as part of £38 million improvement plans

South West Water has completed a scheme to replace a section of sewer in Exmouth and protect customers and the environment from potential pollutions.

Teams have worked hard over the last eight weeks to replace over 300 metres of sewer entering Maer Lane Wastewater Treatment works to improve services for customers, businesses and visitors to the area following issues with the network over the last 12 months.

South West Water aimed to finish the work before the end of the year and despite very challenging weather conditions, including two named storms and freezing temperatures, the work is now complete, in time for Christmas and over a week ahead of schedule.

The scheme forms part of a wider £38m investment by South West Water to improve its services in Exmouth and follows £20m that has already been invested in the area over the last 5 years.

Last week, Ofwat confirmed the company’s plans for 2025-2030 to invest a record £3.2 billion to continue to work with customers and communities to improve their services and deliver what they care about most.

Graham Murphy, South West Water’s Chief Engineering Officer, said: “Ofwat has now given the green light for us to invest in the changes that our customers rightly deserve, now and in the future.

“We’re not waiting until April for these plans to begin though, and our teams are already working hard to deliver £75m of accelerated investment, including in Exmouth, so we can crack on with making the improvements we all want to see.”

South West Water has already made several improvements in Exmouth since 2022, including a £2 million scheme to replace 800 metres of sewer at Phear Park, and work to prevent surface water entering and overwhelming the sewer network at multiple locations.

Work was also carried out earlier this year on a scheme to install a new outfall pipe at Sandy Bay. When fully complete, this, combined with a planned expansion of Maer Lane Wastewater Treatment Works to increase its treatment capacity, will help reduce storm overflow spills from Maer Road and Phear Park pumping stations.

Following the successful installation of the section of sewer in Exmouth last week, South West Water is preparing its second phase of work to replace the remaining length of sewer from Maer Lane Wastewater Treatment Works down to Maer Road Pumping Station.

In its latest business plan, the company will also carry out work to reduce flooding on The Maer, expand Maer Lane Wastewater Treatment Works to increase its treatment capacity, and reduce storm overflow spills from Hartopp Road and Imperial Road pumping stations, and it’s overflows at Exeter Road and Ash Grove.

South West Water’s work to tackle the use of storm overflows extends right across the region as part of its pledge to become the first water company to meet the Government target of less than 10 spills per overflow, per year – a decade ahead of target.

The company is already making great progress and has made improvements to two-thirds of its highest spilling storm overflows from 2023, preventing around 12,500 spills to the environment so far.