An urgent warning has been issued by parents when a number of children fell ill after swimming in a local river.
Reports online suggested youngsters aged between six and eleven became poorly after playing in the water at Plymbridge Woods on Saturday.
South West Water confirmed a team investigated the reports at the weekend. and they do not have any assets near where the issues were reported. There is no evidence to suggest any of illnesses were linked to South West Water's operations.
Mum Sarah Hemmings said her son and his friend have been off school ill as a result of their weekend swim.
Mrs Hemmings replied: "I'm not the only parent with a sick child since having been at Plymbridge Woods this weekend.
“Apparently there is a sign that says raw sewage."
PlymouthLive reported one Twitter user said: “The river in Plymbridge Woods, Plymouth is polluted.
“Nine kids (six to 11) suffering sickness/diarrhoea after visit on 1/7/23.
“Environment Agency not interested as no evidence of pollution?”
South West Water replied to several tweets about the issue at the weekend.
In one user, they wrote: "South West Water did investigate reports over the weekend in this location and found no issues with our assets. Staff walked along a section of the river at the location & found no evidence of water pollution present."
A South West Water spokesperson said: "When we were made aware of this issue over the weekend, we sent our teams out to investigate and take spot samples which indicated that there was nothing of concern to report.
“We can confirm that we do not have any assets near to, or up-stream from Plymbridge Woods and that those further downstream are all intact with no issues identified.
"We would also like to note that this is not a designated bathing water.”
Earlier this year it was reported England and Wales’ waterways had sewage pumped into them for at least 3.4million hours, according to recent figures.
Data from 2021, analysed by Top of the Poops , revealed the horrifying extent to which rivers, canals, the sea and other bodies have been polluted by water companies.
It also highlighted the most polluted local rivers across England and Wales, where just one waterway had sewage pumped into it on over 2,500 separate occasions.
Numbers from the Environment Agency - crunched by Top of the Poops - has also revealed the water companies most guilty of spilling sewage into the country’s water.
The figures were also likely an underestimate because the companies don’t always reliably collect data, with some monitoring defective, or absent entirely, it said.
The River Severn was the most polluted river, and had seen 28,741 hours of sewage pumped into it on 2,656 occasions by Severn Trent Water.
Other companies most responsible for pollution were Yorkshire Water, South West Water, Dwr Cymru and United Utilities.
