Scottish Water on track with CSO commitments as 2023 data published

Scottish Water has reported it is on track with commitments set out in its 2021 Urban Waters Routemap to improve practices relating to combined sewer overflows.

Among the first priorities in the plan was to make more spill data available and visible. Scottish Water at the end of last month updated the data that it is required by environmental regulator SEPA to publish, to include data for 2023. It also voluntarily provided 2023 data for monitored assets which are not specified by regulation, as part of its commitment to transparency. This can be viewed here: https://www.scottishwater.co.uk/Your-Home/Your-Waste-Water/Overflow-Event-Data

Scottish Water added that it would increase the number of locations for which information is published as new monitors are deployed in line with commitments.

Professor Simon Parsons, director of environment, planning and assurance for Scottish Water, said: “The quality of Scotland’s water environment remains high, with 87% of water bodies classed as good or better. We continue to invest in infrastructure – £500m in addition to the £2bn spent in the last decade – which helps improve it further to meet national targets…

“The routemap we published in 2021 set out a crystal-clear commitment to invest further, monitor performance at more locations and strive to prevent pollution incidents before these happen. We are on track to deliver on those commitments.”

The Urban Waters Routemap seeks to: improve water quality; increase monitoring and reporting to cover all wastewater overflows that discharge into the ‘highest priority’ waters; significantly reduce sewer-related debris in the environment; and reduce overflows from the public sewer system.