Water companies in England and Wales have caused an average of five serious sewage spills into rivers and seas every day over the past decade. Observer can be revealed.
Analysis of Environment Agency data found that the 10 companies recorded 19,484 category 1 to 3 pollution incidents between 2013 and 2022 (the most recent year recorded), an average of one every four and a half hours.
Campaigners accused the water industry of “polluting our rivers and seas on a catastrophic scale”, while Labour said the Government had “since sat back and looked the other way” as the crisis worsened.
According to the Environmental Performance Assessment analysed by The Newspaper, Thames Water was the company with the most violations, recording some 3,568 incidents in the period, followed by Southern Water (2,747), Severn Trent (2,712) and Anglian Water (2,572).
Most of the recorded incidents were category 3, the mildest type of incident collected and considered to have only localized impacts.
But that figure may be an underestimate: the number and severity of sewage spills are self-reported by water companies themselves.
Accidents and their actual severity and impact often remain unexplored. The Environment Agency, which regulates the sector, They face staffing shortages and severe budget cuts In the past, it has had to tell inspectors not to investigate less serious incidents to cut costs.
There were 931 reported pollution incidents in the north-west of England between 2020 and 2022, but only six were responded to by the EA.
a A BBC survey last year An investigation into the local water company, United Utilities, found that the company had incorrectly downgraded the severity of a significant number of its own sewage spills to a lower category, thereby avoiding further investigation by the Environment Agency.
The state of Britain’s rivers and seas has become a key issue in the general election.
Labour’s shadow environment secretary, Steve Reid, said: Observer The Conservative government “stands idly by while water companies dump tons of raw sewage into our rivers, lakes and seas.”
He said that if Labour was elected it would give the regulator the power to ban bonus payments and even bring criminal charges against “unlawful water operators”.
Liberal Democrat environment spokesman Tim Farron, whose rural Westmorland Lonsdale constituency is one of the 25 areas worst affected by sewage releases, said the issue was “a national scandal which has only gotten worse under the Conservative government”.
“The Conservative record is rising sewage levels and lining the pockets of water companies,” he added. “The Liberal Democrats have led the anti-sewage campaign, planning to create a new water regulator, abolish unfair bonuses and benefits and appoint new sewer inspectors.”
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In March it was revealed that private water companies in England will release a total of 3.6 million hours of untreated sewage in 2023 – more than double the amount released the previous year.
Small amounts of raw sewage are allowed to be released during periods of unprecedented rainfall that overwhelm sewer systems, but a recent BBC investigation found: “Illegal” release on a day when it’s not rainingIncluding during record-breaking heatwaves.
Executive pay has remained high despite increased scrutiny of the industry in recent years, with nine chief executives of UK water companies receive a bonus of more than £25 million Since the last general election, incentives have been strengthened. These include: Achieving environmental and sustainability goals.
“This is further evidence of what we have long suspected – water companies are polluting our rivers and oceans on a devastating scale every day,” said Giles Bristow, chief executive of Surfers Against Swage.
“These companies have ignored the law and have been allowed to pollute with only minor penalties.”
A Conservative spokesman said the government was clear that “water companies must be held to account” and had “introduced unprecedented levels of transparency with 100% oversight and applied the biggest ever fines for water companies found to be breaking the law”.
A spokesman for Water UK, the body that represents water companies, said the number of the most serious pollution incidents had fallen over the past decade and stressed that the industry planned to invest £100 billion in the network once it had received approval from the regulator, Ofwat.
