Northumbrian Water CEO pleads innocence after triathletes fall ill

Northumbrian Water chief executive Heidi Mottram has been forced to write to a North East MP after he repeatedly blamed the water company for causing an outbreak of sickness at an international triathlon event in Sunderland.

Athletes competing in the World Triathlon Championships Series in Sunderland last July fell ill after the race, which included open water swimming at Roker beach.

An investigation by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) concluded that the gastrointestinal outbreak was caused by norovirus.

However East Durham MP Grahame Morris has continued to blame the water company for polluting the watercourse, which he believed had in turn caused illness.

In her letter, Mottram told Morris that the UKHSA’s investigation into the outbreak of gastrointestinal illness found 19 out of 31 people affected had evidence of norovirus. Some e.coli that was detected, which can be naturally carried in the gut.

The UKHSA’s conclusion was that “the predominance of Norovirus makes it the most likely explanation of illness in participants,” Mottram said.

Morris disputed this during a debate about water quality in which he flippantly dismissed the findings from the official report.

Environment Agency water quality sampling at an adjacent beach three days before the competition found e.coli 40 times higher than a typical reading. Morris suggested this e.coli drifted into the area the swim took place and thus a failing of the water sector.

“Water companies are major polluters,” Morris said. “Although Northumbrian Water is adamant about the Sunderland triathlon, there is no doubt that it is routinely polluting rivers and seas.

“In my constituency, the Safer Seas and Rivers Service app shows that there are three sewage overflows in my constituency, from which there were 184 sewage discharge alerts in 2023 – almost one every third day.”

The water company carried out a review of its assets to ascertain whether they contributed to the outbreak of illness. This showed there had not been any discharges from its assets that could have impacted water quality at Roker or neighbouring beaches since October 2021.

Northumbrian was one of just two water companies in England to earn the Environment Agency’s highest score on its annual Environmental Performance Assessment.

It recorded no serious pollution incidents last during 2022/23 and Roker has been classified as ‘excellent’ bathing water for the past five years by the EA. The race took place in the basin of the River Wear, rather than the designated bathing section at Roker beach.

The company prioritised interventions to reduce spills from the 42 overflows it identified as being priority sites as part of work to reduce the risk of harm from discharges. During the 2020-25 period, Northumbrian invested c.£80 million towards reducing its reliance on the use of overflows by adding storage capacity to the sewer networks.

In the next regulatory period, Northumbrian proposed doubling the amount it invests to more than £6 billion, including £1.7 billion to improve the environment.