Water firms come clean with £10bn sewage spill plan

THE water industry has apologised for the first time for dumping sewage into rivers and waterways, and promised the biggest modernisation of sewers since the Victorian era.

The £10billion plan includes installing water storage tanks equivalent to thousands of new Olympic swimming pools, and ripping out concrete to replace it with ponds.

Sewage spilt into rivers and seas by water companies hundreds of thousands of times a year has been blamed on decades of underinvestment in critical infrastructure.

“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,” said Ruth Kelly, the chairwoman of industry body Water UK. “We have listened and have an unprecedented plan to start to put it right.”

Nicola Shaw, chief executive of Yorkshire Water, sent out a letter of apology to customers, saying the country “should have a system that befits the 21st century”.

The plan is expected to reduce spills by just over 10 per cent compared to last year, when there were around 300,000 sewage spills, according to Environment Agency data.

The new investment plan, which will ultimately be paid through customer bills after up-front funding from water company investors, must be signed off by Ofwat. It is a fraction of the £56billion that the Government has said it will cost to effectively end the routine release of sewage into waterways, which is allowed to happen during exceptional circumstances to stop it backing up into homes.

The water industry has faced calls for renationalisation in the wake of the sewage crisis, which has contributed to just 14 per cent of England’s rivers being classified as ecologically healthy.

Public anger has focused on the billions of pounds paid out in dividends and bonuses to water industry shareholders and bosses since privatisation 30 years ago.

Three water company bosses have said they will decline their annual bonuses, usually around £500,000, this year.

Labour has proposed to create a new regulator for the industry that would combine the roles of the pollution oversight of the Environment Agency with the economic regulation of Ofwat.