The issue of sewage discharge in the United Kingdom has attracted legal, media and political attention. UK water companies periodically release sewage into rivers and coastal waters, leading to health warnings on recreational beaches. This is permitted during heavy rainfall as the sewage system exceeds capacity, but some companies have been suspected of illegally dumping on dry days. The Environment Agency subsequently launched criminal investigations into several companies. The introduction of stricter legislation has been debated in parliament. Southern Water was fined £90m in 2021 and Thames Water was fined £3.4m in 2023 for illegal dumping.
The UK has a combined sewage system, meaning rainwater and wastewater are discharged through the same pipes. During heavy rainfall, this system's capacity can be exceeded, leading to water companies discharging sewage into rivers and lakes. [1] [2] Some water companies also have been suspected of illegally discharging on dry days. [3] Sewage discharge has led to health warnings at popular recreational beaches. [4]
According to unpublished data presented to the high court, raw sewage was released 372,533 times over 2.7 million hours in 2021 and 301,000 times over 1.75 million hours in 2022. [5]
In 2021, Southern Water pled guilty and was fined £90m, a record amount, for "deliberately dumping raw sewage" into the ocean because it was cheaper than treating it. [6] [7] Between 2010 and 2015, Southern Water illegally released sewage on 6,971 occasions at 17 sites in Hampshire, Kent and West Sussex. [8] The investigation was the biggest undertaken by the Environment Agency in its history. [7]
In 2023, Water UK, the industry body, issued an apology for sewage discharge and announced a £10bn plan to modernise the Victorian-era sewage system, [9] whilst Thames Water was fined £3.4m. [5] The Environment Agency also launched a criminal investigation into all water companies. [1]
In August 2024, Ofwat, the British regulator for the water and sewerage industry, put forward a proposal to fine £168m Thames Water, Yorkshire Water and Northumbrian Water because they released sewage too early ahead of heavy rain falls. [10]
In 2022, a proposed amendment to the Environment Bill was defeated 265 to 202 votes by members of parliament. This change would have made explicit that water companies must ensure raw sewage is not discharged. [11] In April 2023, Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Jim McMahon from the Labour Party pushed for a debate and vote in the House of Commons for a proposed Water Quality (Sewage Discharge) Bill, which would introduce automatic fines to water companies for the practice. The bill failed to garner support from the Conservative Party. [12]
The Labour government is currently planning new legislation to address the proposal of Ofwat. [10]
The River Thames, known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At 215 miles (346 km), it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the River Severn.
Severn Trent plc is a water company based in Coventry, England. It supplies 4.6 million households and business across the Midlands and Wales.
Sewage disposal regulation and administration describes the governance of sewage treatment and disposal.
The Thames Tideway Tunnel is a deep-level sewer along the tidal section of the River Thames in London, running 25 kilometres from Acton in the west to Abbey Mills in the east, where it joins the Lee Tunnel which connects to Beckton Sewage Treatment Works. The tunnel is designed to capture almost all the raw sewage and rainwater from combined sewers which would otherwise overflow into the river during heavy rain. The sewage can be stored in the tunnel until it can be treated at Beckton.
United Utilities Group plc (UU) is the United Kingdom's largest listed water company. It was founded in 1995 as a result of the merger of North West Water and NORWEB. The group manages the regulated water and waste water network in North West England, which includes Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Merseyside, most of Cheshire and a small area of Derbyshire, which have a combined population of more than seven million.
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Anglian Water Services Limited is a water company that operates in the East of England. It was formed in 1989 under the partial privatisation of the water industry. It provides water supply, sewerage and sewage treatment to the area formerly the responsibility of the Anglian Water Authority. The remaining functions of the authority were transferred to the Environment Agency. Anglian Water is regulated under the United Kingdom Water Industry Act 1991.
Yorkshire Water is a British water supply and treatment utility company servicing West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, the East Riding of Yorkshire, part of North Lincolnshire, most of North Yorkshire and part of Derbyshire, in England. The company has its origins in the Yorkshire Water Authority, one of ten regional water authorities created by the Water Act 1973, and privatised under the terms of the Water Act 1989, when Yorkshire Water plc, the parent company of the Yorkshire Water business, was floated on the London Stock Exchange. The parent company was Kelda Group in 1999. In February 2008, Kelda Group was bought by a consortium of infrastructure funds.
Thames Water Utilities Ltd, trading as Thames Water, is a British private utility company responsible for the water supply and waste water treatment in most of Greater London, Luton, the Thames Valley, Surrey, Gloucestershire, north Wiltshire, far west Kent, and some other parts of England; like other water companies, it has a monopoly in the regions it serves.
Southern Water is the private utility company responsible for the public wastewater collection and treatment in Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, West Sussex, East Sussex and Kent, and for the public water supply and distribution in approximately half of this area. Some areas within the Southern Water region are supplied by a number of smaller water supply companies. Southern Water supplies an area totalling 4,450 sq. km. and serves 2.26 million customers.
Wessex Water Services Limited, known as Wessex Water, is a water supply and sewerage utility company serving an area of South West England, covering 10,000 square kilometres including Bristol, most of Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire and parts of Gloucestershire and Hampshire. Wessex Water supplies 1.3 million people with around 285 million litres of water a day.
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Public water supply and sanitation in England and Wales has been characterised by universal access and generally good service quality. In both England and Wales, water companies became privatised in 1989, although Dwr Cymru operates as a not-for-profit organisation. Whilst independent assessments place the cost of water provision in Wales and England as higher than most major countries in the EU between 1989 and 2005, the government body responsible for water regulation, together with the water companies, have claimed improvements in service quality during that period.
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The Water Act 1989 is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reorganised the bodies responsible for all aspects of water within England and Wales. Whereas previous legislation, particularly the Water Act 1973, had focused on providing a single unifying body with responsibility for all water-related functions within a river basin or series of river basins, this legislation divided those functions up again, with water supply, sewerage and sewage disposal being controlled by private companies, and the river management, land drainage and pollution functions becoming the responsibility of the National Rivers Authority.
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