SOUTH WEST WATER came close to leaving some of its 3.5 million customers without supplies in Britain’s drought of 2022, according to documents obtained by environment campaign group Greenpeace.

The documents, from the government’s Environment Agency, stated that the firm was inadequately prepared for the heatwave, which left reservoirs dangerously low.

South West Water was “not honest” with regulators about the risk a drought posed to the company’s water supplies, according to an Environment Agency assessment obtained by Greenpeace’s investigative unit Unearthed.