Water companions should no longer be allowed to control their own levels of wastewater pollution, the industry agency said exclusively to the BBC.
Instead, they are proposing a new third -party monitoring system to generate consumer confidence.
The recommendation is part of a presentation made to the independent review of the United Kingdom government in the water sector.
The activists have complained for a long time that the self -report of the companies has prevented the true scale of pollution in the United Kingdom water that is revealed.
A third -party system could add more pressure to regulators, who have also criticized for not making companies accounts.
A report from the National Audit Office is expected to say Friday that the Environment Agency currently does not have enough capacity to assume a new monitoring.
David Henderson, CEO of Industry Body Water UK, told the BBC: “We absolutely accept that self -control is not helping to instill and, therefore, we would like to see the end, and instead of a more robust third party system.”
As part of their permissions agreements, water companies are expected to regularly show water quality to identify potential pollution and send this data to the Environment Agency in a “operator’s self -control.”
But there are bone incidents of discomfort by water companies in England and Wales discovered by regulators, who said some cases had a deliberate leg.
Southern Water previously received total fines of £ 213 million by the industry regulator (what) and the environmental regulator (the Environment Agency) to handle wastewater data.
In that case, there was a contamination not reported in numerous conservation sites that caused “important environmental damage” to wildlife.
The company then admitted that their shares “fell short.”
Henderson added that the industry never asked the monitor, but that the 2009 Labor Government introduced it in 2009 to “reduce administrative burden” in the Environment Agency (EA).
In 2023, the BBC reported that the staff was worried that, due to fund cutters, the agency depended more and more water partners to self -forming instead of carrying their own controls on the contamination of wastewater.
The current Minister of Environment, Steve Reed, has promised to review the system, qualifying it as equivalent to companies “Mark[ing] His own work. “
But the National Audit Office (NAO), which reviews government spending, questioned EA’s capacity to assume any new monitoring.
“Regulators must address the fact that they currently have limited supervision on whether water companies are carrying out their work as expected. It is difficult to see that they achieve it without a greater general capacity,” said Anita Shah, director of regulation after regulation.
A complete review of the water sector regulation is expected to publish on Friday.
A Drop spokesman told the BBC: “We are committed to taking decisive measures to fix the water industry. The recommendations of the Water Commission will mark the next important step [to] Restore public trust in the sector. “
The government launched an independent water commission in October to review the sector and the way it is regulated. The public consultation closed Wednesday with the expected findings in July.
Water UK presented a 200-page document or recommendations, including this call to end self-monitoring.
The industry agency also requested that water meters be universal acrosis England and Wales so that the invoices are more fair. At present, about 60% of the population has a meter.
“The meter is only to make sure people pay for what they, in opposition to a flat system rate, where you can use virtualy without water and pay the same thing that someone fills a pool three times,” said Henderson.
“This does not properly reflect the value of the water and encourages people to keep it in the way we need,” he added.
