OH, I DON’T LIKE TO BE BESIDE THE SEASIDE

During the two years of 2021 and 2022, the privatised water companies discharged raw sewage in to the UK’s rivers and beaches for a combined total of 4.4 million hours. That’s the equivalent of one outfall pipe discharging constantly since the year 1772.

This figure derives from all water pumping outlets which have a monitoring system. Hundreds out of the 15,000 outlets have no monitoring system, including along the Suffolk Coast, so that figure is likely to be significantly higher.

As a result of these discharges, harmful bacteria enter the delicate eco-systems of Britain’s rivers, streams and chalk streams, disrupting or destroying the natural balance with in the water courses. On the beaches, these bacteria will be present when families, swimmers and holidaymakers go for a swim within a certain radius of the outfall pipe, leading to a high risk of catching harmful and potentially fatal diseases.

Under UK law, the water companies are allowed to discharge a limited amount of raw sewage into the environment in ‘exceptional circumstances’ to avoid a back up of rainwater re-entering the water supply system. The definition of ‘extreme circumstances’ has, in recent years, been corrupted to such an extent by the water companies that what they have been doing is illegal. On a grand and revolting scale.

The release of raw sewage fell in 2022 compared to the previous year, though many are pointing at the lower than average rainfall (90% of the historical average) the UK had during the year. Now, all water companies will need to monitor their discharges, and present the data in real-time. This is a government instruction which must be in place across the entire industry by the end of 2023.

The claim made by companies that they must discharge has merit when, for instance, after a heavy rainstorm, where unusually high amounts of rainfall in a short space of time, causes the underinvested (more of that presently) sewage system to be over-run. Indeed, it is perfectly legal for them to do so.

However, that claim doesn’t hold water – literally and figuratively – for what has really been going on. They have been discharging at time of low rain, at times of official drought; Southern Water discharged during Summer 2020 after seven weeks of no rain in Sussex.

Like it or not, there is a huge political angle to this. When it was revealed in reports during the 1980s that Britain’s network of sewage infrastructure needed billions of pounds of maintenance, the Government claimed it could not afford to carry it out, and so privatised the water industry, with promises of bonuses management and shareholders for efficient work.

Unfortunately, like much of the legislation surrounding the privatisation programme of the nationalised utilities of the 1980s and 1990s, shareholders were put at the front of the queue for finance and resources, ahead of services and appropriate work. Therefore, the law is stacked in favour of the privatised corporations.