England’s serious water pollution incidents at 10-year high

The number of so -called serious pollution incidents registered by water companies in England is in a maximum of ten years, according to the data obtained by the activists.

Surfers against wastewater said the data of the Environment Agency showed that the number of incidents was more than double their goal.

Such spills have the potential to cause ships to wildlife and a disease for people who use the rivers and seas of the country.

Water UK, the representation of the United Kingdom industry, wastewater companies, said companies plan to invest £ 12 billion to reduce spills at the end of the decade.

In addition to informing the total number of wastewater spills annually, the environmental regulator of the Environment Agency also records the number of more serious pollution incidents, which probably cause damage to wildlife and people and people and.

Eight years ago, the EA commented that the water sector was not doing enough to reduce serious pollution incidents. Said This was causing “anguish to local communities and rivers and sizes.”

The industry was an objective to reduce these incidents by 40% by 2025 against the 2016 levels.

The latest publicly available data are until the end of 2023. But after a request for freedom of information, surfers against wastewater forced the data until the beginning of 2025.

This showed that last year 2,487 pollution incidents were recorded, a 31% increase in 2016 levels, and almost double the original EA target.

“The water industry fails, fails and fails again,” said Giles Bristow, CEO or surfers against wastewater.

He requested a system reform to “prioritize public health and the value for customer money and deliver healthy coasts, rivers and lakes.”

Water UK responded to the findings on behalf of the nine companies responsible for handling wastewater in England.

“We have a clear leg that the water system does not work and supports the Independent Water Commission that analyzes all aspects of how the industry is regulated.

“However, no wastewater spill is acceptable and water companies are investing £ 12 billion to almost half of the spills of storm overflows by 2030,” said Water UK.

Most of the money is expected to come from increases to water invoices, which begin to enter into force this month.

The industry regulator of what allows water companies to increase invoices by an average of £ 31 each year over the next five years, but those increases do not include inflation, which means that real invoices are probably higher.

The Water Commission is an independent reviewCreated by the Government, to analyze different ways of regulating the industry after an increase in public anger on the performance of the water company.

President Sir Jon Cunliffe, former Vice Governor of the Bank of England, Are the public’s invitation presentations? Until next week.