South West Water pumps out whopping pay-rise for CEO amidst parasite-infested water scandal

Something stinks about a major British utility company and its not just the sewage it has been dumping into UK waterways. No, on 10 June, Pennon Group – owner of South West Water – pumped out its latest annual report. And predictably, the company has stacked on a whopping £300,000 pay increase for ‘Chief Excrement Officer’ Susan Davy.

You read that right – the CEO of the company leaving drinking water in Devon awash in parasites has had a pay-rise.

Of course, if it reeks of capitalist profiteering while shitting on the public, that’s because it very much is.

South West Water boss gets a stinking, stonking pay rise

As the Guardian reported:

The boss of South West Water’s owner has received a pay increase of £300,000, weeks after an outbreak of diarrhoea caused by a parasite in Devon’s water supply.

Susan Davy, the chief executive of Pennon Group, was awarded £860,000 in total pay for the latest financial year, up from £543,000 the year before, according to accounts published on Monday.

So after South West Water told 17,000 households to boil their water to avoid a diarrhoea-inducing parasite, Davy is rolling in a stonking 58% pay increase. Cue the definitely warranted crapping on her and South West Water on X:

Poison an entire town’s drinking water with sewage – and then get a 50%+ pay increase
Beyond comprehension
🤦🏼😠😡🤬
⬇️⬇️⬇️
Boss given £300,000 pay rise despite disease outbreak in Devon https://t.co/F1dsyCeX4c

— charles watson (@watsonchas) June 10, 2024

Did we mention that the parasite outbreak in Devon isn’t over? Well, as it was posting its pay awards, South West Water sure did on X:

❗ Customers under the Boil Water notice 🚱

Please keep using your water supply as usual for bathing, flushing the toilet and laundry. This will keep the water circulating through household pipes aiding in the overall flushing process and will help to clean property networks. pic.twitter.com/0VMNU4qrLZ

— South West Water (@SouthWestWater) June 10, 2024

What’s more, as one poster pointed out, her over 50% pay rise correlated almost perfectly with the increase in sewage spills over the past year:

pay package jump 58 per cent after picking up £298,000 shares bonus despite seeing pollution incidents nearly double at South West Water last year. chief executive Susan Davy’s total pay jumped to £860,000 in 2023-24 from £543,000 the previous year.https://t.co/DnFdWBNFTy

— LAsky (@LAsky66) June 10, 2024

Notably, data from the Environment Agency showed that South West Water were responsible for 464,056 spills in 2023. This was a 54% increase on 2022.

Davy says: “it’s the right thing to do”

Meanwhile, dutiful corporate sewage stooge Sky News instead lavished Davy with undue media praise for oh-so graciously forgoing her annual bonus.

Naturally, they were quite happy to report the effluent coming out of her mouth:

The head of under pressure South West Water’s parent firm has foregone her annual bonus and donated a long-term award to a scheme in support of struggling customers, saying “it’s the right thing to do”.

We hear you Davy, ditching that £237,000 bonus will dress up your parasitic profiteering – and literal parasites – quite nicely. In particular, Davy had “recommended” to the remuneration committee to drop the annual bonus and deferred long-term pay award.

Evidently, Sky thought it had quite the sparkling (poop and) scoop, but missed the part where South West Water’s Davy’s full remuneration still sat at a tidy £860,000.

Don’t worry though, we’re sure a different Davey in glistening lifejacket will arrive to save the day (probably). Watch this space for cut footage from Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey’s next daring sewage-soaked escapades in Devon soon. That’ll sure teach those sleazy water company CEOs a lesson.

In fairness to the Lib Dems, they did recently put forward an amendment to criminalise water companies for dumping sewage. However, this failed to make it into the legislation. That would be because Labour poo-poo’d the idea. Specifically, Starmer and his slimy squadron of suck-up MPs abstained on the amendment.

Not that breaking the law seems to have made a jot of difference, as Violation Tracker was on the scene to remind everyone:

South West Water have committed 176 regulatory infringements since 2010 including 170 environmental offences, health and safety breaches that led to a fatality, and a prosecution for supplying water unfit for human consumption https://t.co/8WfS5UzghQ pic.twitter.com/syiFGQ1b3K

— Violation Tracker UK (@VT__UK) June 10, 2024

And if you thought things couldn’t look any worse, wrong. One Green Party candidate highlighted that South West Water parent company Pennon Group is taking over another local water utility:

The company that owns South West Water is also buying Sutton and East Surrey Water

It’s time we stopped this expensive privatisation experiment and brought public services back into public hands – that would be a bonus for all of us! https://t.co/ALdcQiesoR

— Peter Underwood (He/Him) 💚 (@GreenPeterU) June 10, 2024

The privatisation to poo pipeline

As some pointed out then, it’s hard to imagine anything short of full-scale renationalisation flushing away the pungent stench of corporate capitalist profiteering:

Record polluting South West Water Boss Susan Davy has been given a £300,000 pay rise for poisoning the residents of Devon with Cryptosporidium.

A success that only privatisation could provide. pic.twitter.com/r202J2FVlq

— BladeoftheSun (@BladeoftheS) June 10, 2024

A £300,000 INCREASE!

Why we allow this is beyond belief. We should be storming the HQs of these parasitic water corporations.

Renatioanlise NOW.https://t.co/YcKDvAIA0n

— Bill McGuire (@ProfBillMcGuire) June 10, 2024

One thing’s for certain – we’re all sick of scummy sewer rat-come-corporate capitalists like South West Water shitting on us. So here’s the plan:

• Number 1: vote the toxic Tory assholes who privatised water companies in the first place and keep their sewage-monger mates in business out at the general election.
• Number 2: Make these wastemen (and women) CEOs mop up this mess with their big pay packets – and finally stop draining the public purse for their undeserved profits once and for all.

Feature image via Accounting for Sustainability/Al Jazeera – Youtube/the Canary