Water firms in
England and Wales have been illegally dumping raw sewage into rivers and the
sea on a regular basis, according to recent investigations and inquiries.
Underfunding and a failure to enforce water quality has been blamed. We look
into how our waterways have become so seriously damaged.
Water companies are allowed to pump untreated sewage into
the UK’s rivers and surrounding seas when too much rainfall threatens the
capacity of their water tanks. This prevents sewage from backing up into our streets
and homes. The water firms should screen their raw sewage before they discharge
it.
During heavy rain or a storm, the amount of water flowing
into your local wastewater treatment works might be more than they can properly
treat. When this happens, the water companies divert untreated water into storm
tanks, if they have enough of them. After a storm subsides, the water in the
storm tanks should then be returned and treated as normal.
However, if rain is particularly heavy or a storm continues
for a while then, according to Ofwat (the regulator of the privatised water
companies), the water firms are allowed to ‘release the extra incoming rainwater and diluted
wastewater into the environment, normally after partial treatment by settlement
by storm tanks or through storm overflows into a river or sea’. The permits
that allow the water companies to do this are enforced by the UK government’s
Environment Agency. These permits specify how much waste water must be treated
before the firms can then pump untreated sewage into our rivers and seas.
The
Environment Agency revealed that water companies in England dumped raw sewage
into rivers over 400,000 times in 2020. This means that untreated water
contaminated with human waste entered our waterways for more than three million
hours over the year. The agency said that these overflows were ‘a necessary
part of the existing sewerage system’ and that wet wipes are the main cause of
blockages in the sewers. If we stop flushing wet wipes and pouring fat and
grease down the drain we could help prevent most sewer blockages, they
suggested.
In 2021,
a BBC investigation found that most water companies in England and Wales were
illegally dumping raw sewage into our rivers. Eight of the eleven firms were
breaching their permits by releasing untreated wastewater before treating the
amount they are supposed to. Welsh Water illegally dumped raw sewage for 12
consecutive days in 2020, while one Thames Water site breached its permit on 43
days and another released sewage almost continuously for three months.
While
Ofwat and the Environment Agency were investigating these breaches, in early
2022 the Environmental Audit Committee (a cross-party group of MPs monitoring
the environmental impact of all government departments) claimed that untreated
wastewater was regularly being illegally dumped. Seven water companies pumped
raw sewage onto our coast more than 3,000 times from 2017 to 2021. The
committee complained that self-monitoring by the industry had led to
unacceptably high unpermitted sewage discharges, urging regulators and water
companies to ‘get a grip’.
The
chairman of the Environmental Audit Committee, Philip Dunne, said: ‘Our inquiry
has uncovered multiple failures in the monitoring, governance and enforcement
on water quality. For too long, the Government regulators and the water industry
have allowed a Victorian sewerage system to buckle under increasing pressure.’
‘The decision by water companies and the government to view rivers as places
that can absorb pollution has turned these precious watercourses into all but
an open sewer,’ said Surfers Against Sewage, a national marine conservation and
campaigning charity, in their 2021 Water Quality Report. ‘This sorry state of
affairs is a result of weakened legislation and a defunded regulator, which has
allowed the monolithic water industry to operate with near impunity –
self-regulating and reporting pollution when it feels like it.’
The trade
association representing the water companies, Water UK, has acknowledged
the ‘urgent need for action to tackle
the harm caused to the environment by overflows’. The Environment Agency
responded by saying ‘we will not hesitate to pursue the water companies
concerned, and take appropriate action’.
In the
meantime, the Environment Act of 2021 now legally binds all water companies to
provide transparent, year-round data on their sewage discharges. The Rivers
Trust, an environmental charity dedicated to the conservation of our rivers,
has created an online map <https://www.theriverstrust.org/key-issues/sewage-in-rivers>
which shows exactly where the sewerage network discharges and overflows into
rivers. Also, Surfers Against Sewage has created the Safer Seas and Rivers Service
<https://www.sas.org.uk/map/>,
an app which tracks sewage overflows and pollution risk forecasts,
monitoring water quality at over 400 locations around our rivers and
coastlines.
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Once you add a Package to your basket, and progress to the last stage of the checkout process, we will then add in your discount. So don't worry if you don't see it before then (such as in the cart).
Once you add a Package to your basket, and progress to the last stage of the checkout process, we will then add in your discount. So don't worry if you don't see it before then (such as in the cart).
Once you add a Package to your basket, and progress to the last stage of the checkout process, we will then add in your discount. So don't worry if you don't see it before then (such as in the cart).
Once you add a Package to your basket, and progress to the last stage of the checkout process, we will then add in your discount. So don't worry if you don't see it before then (such as in the cart).
Once you add a Package to your basket, and progress to the last stage of the checkout process, we will then add in your discount. So don't worry if you don't see it before then (such as in the cart).
Once you add a Package to your basket, and progress to the last stage of the checkout process, we will then add in your discount. So don't worry if you don't see it before then (such as in the cart).
Once you add a Package to your basket, and progress to the last stage of the checkout process, we will then add in your discount. So don't worry if you don't see it before then (such as in the cart).
Once you add a Package to your basket, and progress to the last stage of the checkout process, we will then add in your discount. So don't worry if you don't see it before then (such as in the cart).
Once you add a Package to your basket, and progress to the last stage of the checkout process, we will then add in your discount. So don't worry if you don't see it before then (such as in the cart).
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