Serious water pollution in England up 60%, government says
According to the government’s latest data, serious pollution incidents of water companies increased by 60% last year.
These are events that have a “serious or permanent” effect on the environment by the environmental agency and cause the loss of water life and human health risks.
Early on Friday, the Public Accounts Committee – a deputy’s cross -party group – published the reports of the sector to the sector and described the pollution level as “grieving”.
Industrial Group Water UK, representing water companies, was approached for comment.
Data from the Environmental Agency comes before a turning point of the water industry, which will be published on Monday.
President Sir John Cunliffe will prepare the government’s suggestions to the government on how to improve the environmental and financial performance of the sector.
Each year, the Environmental Agency notes that the number of pollution such as unmoted sewage, from water company assets to the country’s waterways, such as treatment works.
In 2024, compared to 2,174 in 2023, there were 2,801 events with the highest record. 75 of them were the most serious ones that harm fishing, drinking water and human health.
Only three companies were responsible for the vast majority – Thames Water (33), Southern Water (15) and Yorkshire Water (13).
England has a combined sewage system, which means that both rainfall and sewage are processed through the same system. Last year, some water company could have overwhelmed the infrastructure.
However, despite the differences in precipitation, the discharge that causes serious pollution is a violation of permission and legal obligations.
Many events are reported to the Environmental Agency by the companies themselves, but found that last year, 4,000 inspections by the regulator, violating the permits of about a quarter of the sites.
Sir Geoffrey Cliftton-Brown, President of the Public Accounts Committee, which published its report on Tuesday, has strongly criticized the government and the agency for not doing more.
“The regulators have been overwhelmed by the number of prosecution and cannot prevent companies from acting illegally. The government must now take action to strengthen regulators and support the efforts to take into account companies.” He said.
The Committee said that the ongoing events are the result of the regulators – the Environmental Agency and Ofwat – “[ing] To ensure that water companies maintain vital infrastructure “.
It is estimated that companies will replace the entire water network network at existing rates for 700 years.
