Press and politicians link pollution with people at the top

Public interest in river water quality and sewage pollution continued this week, with a number of notable developments in Parliament and the national press.

• The Daily Mirror published a detailed investigation which linked water company chief executive pay and shareholder dividends with raw sewage discharge to rivers. The investigation reported the pay and bonuses of the nine English water and sewerage company bosses as £15m, their companies as making profits of £2.8bn in 2020/21, and four as paying £776m in dividends. The article juxtaposed that with pollution statistics including that last year, “the number of times their firms pumped raw sewage into our seas and rivers rose 37%” and that the six worst polluting companies released “raw sewage through storm overflows for 1.9m hours in 2020 – equivalent to one sewer discharging non-stop for 217 years”.

• Shadow Defra spokesperson, Baroness Jones of Whitchurch, asked the government “what recent discussions they have had with Ofwat about the powers it has to take action against individual water company executives in the event of illegal sewage discharges; and whether those discussions identified:

any request from Ofwat for greater powers to fine water company executives; and

any lacunae in its regulatory powers in this area.”

In his response, Defra minister, Lord Goldsmith, set out the provisions of company law, and pointed to the government’s water quality improvement reforms and recent Strategic Policy Statement (SPS) for Ofwat.

• The Daily Telegraph launched a Clean Rivers Campaign, published a series of articles on sewage and chemical pollution, and called for “a national plan to clean up Britain’s filthy rivers”.

• In a written question, Brighton Pavilion MP Caroline Lucas asked the secretary of state “when the Government intends to end the practice of operator self-monitoring for water companies; which agency will take over that monitoring; and what funding will be made available for the delivery of that activity.” Water minister, Rebecca Pow, laid out the monitoring requirements of companies including those newly introduced under the Environment Act, but did not indicate any plans to end self-monitoring.

• There was also a series of questions on the SPS and drainage and wastewater management plans from Hendon’s Conservative MP ,Matthew Offord.