Rain ‘too heavy’ to prevent sea sewage spill

Southern Water admits waste discharge across the South-east ‘as antiquated system can no longer cope’

‘It is just a scandal that this is allowed to happen as a matter of accepted routine’

‘Awareness of storm releases is growing and there are increasing calls for the highly regulated practice to end’

SOUTHERN Water pumped raw sewage into coastal bathing spots last weekend despite campaigners calling for tougher restrictions on releases.

The water company discharged waste at more than half its outlets on the south east coast, with some releases lasting for more than 40 hours, figures published on its website show.

The Isle of Wight and Herne Bay and Ramsgate Sands in Kent were among the affected areas.

Britain’s combined sewer system – a legacy from Victorian times – collects rainwater and waste in the same pipes, meaning it overflows in times of heavy rainfall. These overflows are a fail-safe to stop sewage backing up into homes and streets and are supposed to only happen in “exceptional” circumstances, according to a 2012 European court ruling. But in recent years this is thought to be happening more, as greater volumes of sewage come through the system.

In 2020 this happened 403,000 times, compared to nearly 293,000 in 2019, a rise which the Environment Agency says is down to increased monitoring.

The Met Office said up to 1.7in of rain fell on the south east coast on Saturday, just under half the average total for the whole of October.

Campaigners are calling for tougher restrictions on overflows to prevent raw sewage being released into rivers and the sea, as figures show a combination of waste contamination and agricultural run-off mean all of Britain’s rivers fail pollution tests.

Last month the House of Lords passed an amendment to the Environment Bill which would place a duty on the government and water companies to “take all reasonable steps” to avoid raw sewage being discharged from storm overflows. It is currently unclear whether the Government will support the measure.

The Duke of Wellington, who introduced the amendment, said that more investment was needed to modernise the sewage network.

Campaigners say pressure on private firms to keep consumers’ water bills low while continuing to pay dividends to their shareholders has led to decades of underinvestment.

Charles Watson, chairman of River Action UK, said: “While widely acknowledged as one of the worst offenders, Southern Water’s disclosures this weekend of multiple sewage discharges into the sea, as well as the many more into rivers that go unreported, will be telling the same story as all the other water companies up and down the country following a rainy weekend. It is just a scandal that this is allowed to happen as a matter of accepted routine.”

Southern Water was fined a record £90 million in July for the deliberate dumping of sewage off the south coast between 2010 and 2015.

The company said climate change was causing more intense rainstorms while development was reducing the amount of land that would allow water to soak away naturally.

A Southern Water spokesman said: “Public awareness of storm releases is growing and there are increasing calls for the highly regulated practice to end. We support these calls and have adopted a pioneering approach.”

He said rainwater separation should be built into all new construction.