Water by itself is not that conductive. It is impurities in it that make it conductive. Ultra-pure water has a resistance of up to 18 megohm per cm. They won't be using that, but apparently use de-ionised water, which is fairly free from impurities and thus not particularly conductive.
It's likely that the HV insulators have been sprayed with dielectric silicon grease precisely to prevent the formation of continuous electrolyte films on the exposed surfaces.
What is typically used is G635 dielectric grease, originally from GE, but now widely available, the patents long since expired. The same stuff is sold for a very high price in the healthcare market.
When G635 first came out in the 1970s, I got a sample tube. Still have it, but much reduced. It worked wonders on sparkplug insulators, and distributor caps and rotors - hard starting in damp weather became a thing of the past. Also good for flooding stranded wire before crimping a terminal on, to prevent creepage of salt water into the terminal.
Our parrot Quincy loves to be sprayed too. There's no hazard from a nearby outlet.
San Francisco, after very much debate, has just declared the parrot to be The Official City Animal. We have giant, noisy, obnoxious flocks of wild parrots here. There's a nice movie about that.
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