‘Imbalanced’ focus on CSO spills risks water quality targets

The government risks missing clean water targets by solely focusing on spills from combined sewer overflows (CSOs).

The Office for Environmental Protection’s (OEP) annual assessment warns that while “investment has increased substantially in some […] areas of need; addressing diffuse pollution requires similar urgency and scale of action as addressing combined sewer overflows”.

It states that “to ensure that all major pressures on the water environment are addressed proportionately, government should address imbalances in delivery and scale up actions across all major pressures”.

It adds: “This imbalance and insufficient scale of delivery means that progress towards the significant objectives set under the Water Framework Directive Regulations, including achieving good ecological status or potential by 2027, is largely off track.”

In particular, the OEP calls for greater focus on reducing pollutants from agriculture; increasing the uptake of nature based solutions; and tackling pollution from urban and road surfaces and water abstraction.

“Overall, […] we do not see a clear path or plan for achievement of the [government’s] commitments […] or objectives,” the report adds. “Prioritisation of investment and action does not appear to be adequate or sufficiently balanced to address all major pressures.”

It continues: “While our assessment shows that investment in the water environment is at risk of being imbalanced, government has a major opportunity to address this by incentivising action that delivers multiple benefits.

“This could involve, for example, scaling up actions that address more than one major pressure on the natural environment, such as providing further support to enable a greater proportion of sewer overflows to be delivered using nature based solutions. […]

“Water companies alone cannot reduce the demand for water. Government, local authorities, the public, business and other stakeholders play a crucial role here. In particular, government should encourage people and businesses to make greener choices.”

The report also calls for the government to update bathing water regulations and promote “nature-friendly” farming.

The OEP also warns that the UK is on track to miss its target to reduce the use of public water supply per person by 20% by 2038, compared to 2018 usage levels.

The target was set in response to the Environment Agency’s review of draft Regional Water Resource Plans which found an additional 4,000 million litres of water a day will be needed in England by 2050 to meet future supply pressures.

Despite the need to use less water, all water companies fell short of their targets to reduce consumption in Ofwat’s annual assessment released in September 2023.

Dame Glenys Stacey, chair of the OEP, said: “While some progress has been made, substantial challenges remain. Our assessment is that government is largely off track to meet its ambitions and its legal obligations.

“Deeply, deeply concerning adverse environmental trends continue. With the depleted state of our natural environment and the unprecedented pace of climate change, it does seem to many that we are at a crossroads. It is not easy for us as a nation to choose the right path, the right trajectory and to travel together at the pace needed, but we simply must.

“Government must speed up its efforts.”

In September last year, the OEP revealed possible failures to comply with environmental law by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the Environment Agency and Ofwat.

All three bodies have been issued with formal notices instructing them where the OEP believes there has been a breach of legislation in relation to the regulation of combined sewer overflows (CSOs).

The annual assessment adds that the investigation remains open and the OEP is still minded to believe “there may have been failures to comply with environmental laws by all three of the public authorities”.