Is It Safe to Swim in the River Dart?

Short answer – Sometimes yes – sometimes no.

Even though The River Dart was awarded the record number of bathing sites last year the water quality can change from hour to hour so in a good reading in the morning doesn’t mean the water is safe all day. And one of the more alarming nasties sometimes present in the river can do considerably more harm than an upset stomach.

Testing Testing 123

I met with Caroline Voaden MP who was at Steamer Quay to test a sample of the water using a test developed by Brixham company, Molendotech. The company was created from a Plymouth University department and Rui Andres the CEO of the company was on hand to show the funky new device that enables almost anyone to test water quality scientifically. It can be argued that the privatisation of water in 1989 under Margaret Thatcher hasn’t worked out well for British rivers and the population as a whole. With fines of 2.1 million pounds for South West Water in April 2023 over a series of pollution incidents in Devon and this was prior to the cryptosporidiosis outbreak last year.

Groups like Friends of the River Dart have raised thousands to enable them to independently check the water quality throughout the region using expensive, technical systems to test the water. Rui Andres wanted his company want to change this and have developed the Bactiquick device that can define if the water quality is of low, medium or high risk within just 15 minutes. If that seems a long time, this kind of testing used to need to happen in a laboratory or with on-site equipment that has a high cost. The device is currently £200 plus vat and each testing kit is £25 after the vat. A very basic result appears with a traffic light style reading on the device itself with more detail displayed on an app that works with the rechargeable unit. This may be more than individuals would want to spend, however it seems feasible that regatta’s and rowing clubs might want to invest in a product like this.

“Let’s test the Dart morning, noon and night. See what’s in it!”

Caroline performed the test using a pippette to put some Dart water drops into a small test tube which was inserted into the Bactiquick device and while we waited the quarter hour she wanted to know more about Rui and Molendotech; “…a spinoff from Plymouth University, we have labs in Brixham and another in Truro.”  After targetting water as a public health issue they set about finding ways to improve the situation. Rui continued “Water results take a long time so now can we improve public health in a better way. Now we have developed the technology we are trying to spread it.”

Getting in the water?

South West Water are already using technology developed by Molendotech with the more expensive systems but it appears that if the general public can also accurately test water quality, this may have a profound effect on all the privatised water companies. Tests have shown the Dart sometimes has high levels of Salmonella Typhi – a type of bacteria that causes typhoid fever, a serious illness characterized by prolonged high fever, fatigue, headache, and abdominal pain. Even more alarming is that several bacteria in the water have a developed immunity to anti-biotics. This means that some illnesses might not be as treatable as in the past. Rui explains; “There is a report that shows a 60% increase of hospital contaminations in the the last 10 years in the UK. Mostly caused by salmonella and leptospirosis” he continued that a recent report from the current government that the last 20 years ; “shows a 20% increase in waterbourne hospitalisations.”

It would be a joke if it wasn’t so serious

Does Caroline swim in the River?

“I’ve stopped“.  “Two summers ago I was quite ill for a couple of days after a swim, and it really put me off.” Rui explains that anyone using the river (this include pets) is at risk. Activities like waterboarding and rowing can be vulnerable – small cuts and grazes can be infected as well as the obvious swallowing of water.

 

The results come in on Carolines’ test and shows a green light indicating the River Dart is safe to bathe in. However an hour or so from now, the results could well be changed. The obvious cause is dumping from the sewage works upriver but other issues are spills from boats, sewage outflows from private land and properties, farming runoff and even swimmers themselves in the water. It seems generally the worst time to swim in the river tends to be from 3 to 4pm when a lot of people have already been in the water.

South West Water responded: “There are a wide range of factors which can affect river water quality, including agricultural and urban pollution. We recognise that to improve the quality of our rivers, we all need to play our part.”

Molendotech are in discussions with regulators and are hoping to scale up sales of the units and kits in order to bring down the price and make the testing of water a more routine event.

Caroline Voaden; “We know South West Water are aware of the problems.” “I don’t think there is an urgency that’s required to clean it up. I don’t think there is enough investment, there are a lot of excuses. If people were regularly testing the river and publicising the results, I think we would see a change of behavior from South West Water.” – “Let’s test the Dart morning, noon and night. See what’s in it!”

South West Water say: “We are investing around £760 million over the next five years to reduce our use of storm overflows to fewer than 10 spills per overflow, per year – a decade ahead of target. We were one of only five companies in the industry to reduce spills last year compared to 2023 and we know there is more to do and we are moving in the right direction driven by our determination to deliver on our customers’ priorities.”

Should it be the water companies who finance improvements? “Absolutely. The privatised model doesn’t work. The money is going to vastly inflated executive pay packets and shareholder dividends. If you’re a private company you’re raison d’etre is to make money for your shareholders.” She continues “The water companies should never have been privatised.”

“We had a Liberal Democrat led debate in parliament on sewage yesterday calling for a new water regulator.” Millions of pounds of fines against water companies have not been collected or enforced. “Water companies know that Ofwat don’t have any teeth so they don’t pay up.”

Price Increases

What does Caroline Voaden make of the recent 28% increases in Water Bills? “It would be a joke if it wasn’t so serious, mine has gone up 30%” – “the company is under-performing massively. 49,904 hours of sewage in my constituency which is 5.69 years of sewage from outflows in one year.” “where is this money going?” “We’ve been asking for months to share a plan with us of what they’re going to upgrade and what the timeline is. They haven’t.”

South West Water response is: “We are doing everything we can to keep our bills affordable for our customers. Whilst there will be changes to bills this year, this will support a record investment of £3.2bn across our regions and will help us to deliver on our customers’ top priorities – providing safe, clean drinking water, reducing the use of storm overflows and protecting the environment. We offer many financial support programmes for those who need it, including a £200m support package for customers, and we urge people to contact us if they have any questions or concerns.”

 

Addendum 3rd May 2025: Article edited as chart showing pathogen markers was incorrectly attributed to Friends of the River Dart.

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