“England’s Victorian-era wastewater system can no longer cope”
OPINION
Many see it as one of the environmental crimes of the century. Privatised water companies have been lining their pockets while routinely dumping raw sewage into our increasingly stinky rivers and coastlines.
After decades of gross underinvestment, England’s decrepit Victorian-era wastewater system can no longer cope. The crux of the problem is that raw sewage and rainwater end up in the same pipes on their way to the treatment works. Heavy rain fills the system to overflowing, so special valves release the contents into the nearest river or sea (otherwise, the untreated sewage would back up and flood our homes). These intentional raw sewage discharges are permitted – but only under exceptional circumstances and on condition that they are reported. (Incidentally, the water companies call them ‘spills’, as if they are accidental.)
But recent evidence reveals that the water companies are dumping 10 times more sewage than they have been disclosing. Environment Agency figures show there were no fewer than 301,091 sewage discharges in England in 2022 – that’s an average of 824 per day. In the same year, these corporations paid out £1.4 billion in dividends to their shareholders and awarded astronomical multi-million-pound bonuses to their senior management (making a mockery of ‘performance-related pay’).
Regulators, planners, local authorities and governments all had the power to stop this environmental vandalism and rampant profiteering – but didn’t.
The health of England’s waterways already lags far behind the rest of the UK. According to the Environment Agency, 67.5 per cent of water bodies in Scotland are classed as being in good health, as are 40 per cent of rivers in Wales and 31.3 per cent or rivers in Northern Ireland. In England, the figure is 0 per cent of rivers, lakes and streams. This is despite the pledge in the government’s 25 Year Environment Plan for 75 per cent of water bodies in England to be in good condition “as soon as is practicable” (ahead of an unrealistic target for all water to be in good health by 2027).
Not surprisingly, the Environment Agency recently suggested that water company bosses should be thrown into jail. Or maybe we should simply force these industry chiefs to go for a swim in one of their foul sewage-laden rivers.
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