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1 week ago
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Water companies must clean up the environment and reduce pollution in what the Environment Agency (EA) says is the biggest investment in protecting rivers and seas since privatisation.
The agency has secured a commitment from the privatised water industry to carry out 24,000 targeted actions in a £22bn investment in the environment, according to details of the final water industry national environment programme for the next five years. But the investment will be paid for by customers in bill rises over the same time.
Letters have already been sent out by some companies, including Thames Water, which is struggling in the face of bankruptcy, announcing rises to customer bills. Thames customers are being told their bills will rise by between £16 and £19 a month this year to start paying for investment in fixing pipes, reducing pollution and protecting the environment.
In their letter Thames – which has admitted it has sweated its assets and underinvested for decades – told customers: “For us to continue to deliver billions of litres of clean water and take wastewater away from millions of homes, it’s vital that we invest in our network and infrastructure over the next five years … extra funding is now essential to make improvements to our services.”
The regulator Ofwat said on Wednesday the investment in the environment, which has been secured, represented a quadrupling of the investment of the last five years. It includes a commitment by the companies to establish trials to remove nitrates from treated sewage, restore nationally important chalk streams, and install what they are calling “bespoke biosecurity measures” to remove invasive species.
Other goals set out for the next five years mean water companies must commit to:
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Reducing the amount of water abstracted, leading to an estimated 60m litres of water being retained in the environment every day.
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Protecting and enhancing of 13,500 km of rivers.
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Upgrading 2,350 storm overflows leading to an estimated annual reduction of sewage spills by 85,000 annually.
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Improving 21 newly designated bathing water sites across England.
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Reducing phosphorus inputs to the environment at more than 800 sewage treatment works.
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Installing 3,500 monitors at emergency overflows sites.
But critics have said the EA as a regulator has repeatedly failed to make sure water companies uphold the current legal standards.
For years the water industry has carried out the routine discharge of raw sewage via storm overflows in breach of the legal permits issued by the EA.
A criminal investigation by the agency into these widespread illegal sewage discharges from treatment works run by all water companies has yet to lead to any sanctions, arrests or convictions.
Alan Lovell, chair of the EA, said the level of investment into the environment that the agency has secured was unprecedented.
“[It] represents a vital step forward towards ensuring we have clean, safe, and abundant water now and for future generations,” he said.
He promised that the EA would closely monitor the companies to ensure they fulfilled their commitments.
“We will work closely with [the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs] Defra, Ofwat and other regulators to monitor water company progress and ensure they deliver what has been promised,” he said. “If water companies fail to carry out their legal obligations to the environment, we will take action.”
Steve Reed, the environment secretary, said: “It is no secret that our water system needs fixing and that our rivers, lakes and seas are choked by pollution.
“Customers deserve the money they pay in bills to go towards improving the service they receive, and that is why the government will ringfence money earmarked for investment, so it can only be spent on projects like these.”
