Water bosses in grovelling apology over raw sewage in our rivers
THE water industry yesterday issued a grovelling collective apology for dumping millions of tons of sewage in British rivers.
Trade body Water UK issued the apology in an apparent attempt to draw the line after a torrent of public anger over the continuing scandal.
For years water bosses have been attacked for failing to invest in Victorian infrastructure which allows sewage to pour into waterways.
At the same time they have treated themselves to enormous pay and bonus packages and delivered huge profits to shareholders.
The collective apology comes as chief executives of Thames Water, Yorkshire Water and Southern Water announced they would forego their bonuses in the face of public anger.
But critics said the apology was not enough.
Water UK’s new boss, the former Labour Cabinet minister Ruth Kelly, said in a letter: ‘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.’
She promised water companies would, if the regulator Ofwat allows it, increase investment in sewage infrastructure by £10billion over the next five years, on top of an existing £3.1billion in a new National Overflows Plan affecting 350,000 miles of sewage pipes.
Water UK said the investment was ‘the biggest modernisation of sewers since the Victorian era’.
It said it would install tanks equivalent in capacity to thousands of Olympic swimming pools to hold rainwater surges, increase the capacity of sewage works and replace concrete with grass and ponds to reduce rainfall run off.
It would also create new reed beds and wetlands to help treat overflow spills that do enter rivers, and enlarge the sewer network. The plan would reduce the number of sewage spills each year, from 403,170 in 2020 to 263,170 by 2030, Water UK said
Philip Dunne MP, Tory chairman of the environmental audit committee said: ‘People are quite rightly sick and tired of the repeated reports of sewage flowing into our rivers and seas, and we must put a stop to it.
‘More should have been done’
Today’s initiatives, if delivered fully, could go a long way to addressing these understandable concerns.’
But Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey said: ‘This apology and plan just don’t go far enough.
‘This announcement does nothing to match the billions water firms have paid out in dividends to overseas investors, or stop their CEOs being handed multi- million pound bonuses.’
The Government’s Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan, published in August 2022, aims to eliminate sewage dumping by 2050 while cutting discharges close to ‘high priority’ areas by 75 per cent by 2035 and 100 per cent by 2045.
A spokesman for Ofwat said: ‘We welcome the apology from water companies and this now needs to be turned into action.’