Water companies apologise for sewage spills

Water UK has apologised for not acting quickly enough to reduce sewage spills and announced much greater transparency on outflows alongside a national plan to tackle the issue.

The umbrella body for water companies, which have attracted intense criticism over recent years on a string of issues including sewage discharges, has issued a public apology for not dealing with the issue quickly enough.

To back up this apology, Water UK has confirmed that companies in England will invest £10 bilion this decade, more than treble the £3.1 billion they have currently committed to between 2020 and 2025.

Subject to approval by regulators, this investment is expected to cut sewage overflows by up to 140,000 per annum compared to the level in 2020, through measures such as increasing the capacity of sewage treatment works and greater use of grass and ponds to reduce rainfall run-off.

Water UK has said a detailed National Overflows Plan will be published later this summer.

This will set out for the first time each company’s approach to improving its overflows, including when improvements can be expected, how they will be delivered and the expected results.

In addition, water and sewage companies will collaborate on creating a new independently-overseen National Environment Data Hub by this time next year, providing the public with information updated hourly on the operation of all 15,000 sewage overflows in England. Thousands of new river quality monitors, which are planned to be installed from 2025 onwards, will be added to the hub as they come online.

Water companies have also pledged to help up to 100 communities to draw up plans for new river swimming areas. This assistance will cover applying for legal protection, covering the costs of pre-submission water testing and working with regulators to fix local sources of pollution.

Industry will also develop guidance and toolkits to help local groups develop plans for river swimming areas.

Ruth Kelly, chair of Water UK, said: “The message from the water and sewage industry today is clear: we are sorry. More should have been done to address the issue of spillages sooner and the public is right to be upset about the current quality of our rivers and beaches.

“We have listened and have an unprecedented plan to start to put it right. This problem cannot be fixed overnight, but we are determined to do everything we can to transform our rivers and seas in the way we all want to see.”