The amount of sewage being dumped into English rivers remains “disgraceful”, despite improved monitoring, supposed investment by water companies and threats of penalties from government, the latest data reveals.
Overall, there was a 2.9% decrease in the number of sewage spills last year compared to 2023, according to water company data collected and analysed by the Environment Agency.
Despite this small improvement in the number of events, the duration of spills – the amount of time a water treatment plant discharges untreated sewage into a river or the sea – increased by 0.2%.
“This year’s data shows we are still a long way off where we need to be to stop unnecessary sewage pollution,” said Alan Lovell, chair of the Environment Agency.
The EA says it has secured £10.2bn from water companies to reduce sewage dumping.
“While these improvements get under way, we expect water companies to do what customers pay it to do: ensure their existing assets are maintained and operating properly,” said Mr Lovell.
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The latest data is bad, if not unexpected news, for the government.
“These figures are disgraceful and are a stark reminder of how years of underinvestment have led to water companies discharging unacceptable levels of sewage into our rivers, lakes and seas,” said Environment Secretary Steve Reed.
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The government says part of its £100bn public infrastructure investment plans will address water pollution.
But repairing or replacing thousands of miles of ageing water pipes and dilapidated water treatment works, as well as building new ones, is expected to take decades.
This year, it also introduced the Water (Special Measures) Act which it said it would use to get “tough” on water companies.
The bill allows for the banning of bonuses for water company bosses failing to meet targets and allows criminal charges to be brought against companies in breach of the law.
The government, however, may soon find itself in the stink.
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Last week, environment watchdog the Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) announced it was launching an investigation into whether proposed plans from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) to clean up waterways are in breach of the law.
The OEP is to decide whether DEFRA’s plans, implemented by the Environment Agency and the water regulator Ofwat, are too generic and fail to address the environmental risk of sewage pollution at particular sites.
England, for example, is home to the majority of the world’s chalk stream rivers and streams that are particularly sensitive to sewage pollution.
‘Still broken’
For clean water campaigners, the latest data is just more of the same.
“The water industry is still broken,” said James Wallace, chief executive of River Action.
He added: “The numbers are staggering: over 3.6 million hours of sewage spills from almost 450,000 discharges.
“That’s equivalent to 412 continuous years of sewage polluting our rivers, lakes and seas.”
The frustration for consumers is that many of us will see significant increases to our bills in order to finance the investments being demanded by Ofwat and the government to meet pollution targets.
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Last year, an independent Water Commission was launched by the government.
Led by Sir Jon Cunliffe, it is charged with coming up with long-term reforms for the way water companies are regulated.
The commission should look at the structure and ownership of water companies themselves, according to campaigners.
“[It] must put an end to this failed privatisation experiment and force real reform of the industry and regulators,” said Mr Wallace.
“We need to learn from our European neighbours, and use finance and governance models that put people and nature before investors.”
