Scottish Water pledges £500m on urban water clean up as new river plans are announced

Scottish Water is to invest half a billion pounds to fund its new Improving urban waters route map – a comprehensive wastewater strategy to improve water quality and tackle storm overflows.

The plan covered actions that the company will take up to 2027, divided into pre and post 2024 sections. The map set out how Scottish Water intends to:

• improve water quality (to support Scotland’s RBMP objectives - see below);

• increase monitoring and reporting to cover all combined sewer overflows (CSOs) that discharge into the highest priority waters;

• significantly reduce sewer related debris in the environment; and • reduce spills from the sewer network.

It noted the actions have significant investment demands and not all are currently set out in its investment planning scenarios. It said governance of investment will be undertaken with water industry stakeholders and progress reported to ministers via the Investment Planning and Prioritisation Group. Scottish Water also emphasised the need for partnership working and multi-stakeholder participation in delivery.

The news came alongside the Scottish Government’s publication of the third river basin management plans (RBMPs), which set out a wide range of priority measures to boost river health. Environment minister Mairi McAllan said: “The comprehensive actions set out in the plans are expected to result in 81% of Scotland’s water environment being in a good condition by 2027, which is a significant improvement of 15% on current results.”

In addition, the Scottish Government is consulting until 22 March on an updated Marine Litter Strategy. Alongside measures on fishing equipment and plastic, the strategy covered measures to prevent items like wet wipes and sanitary products from entering the sea through the sewage system. Actions included improvements to sewage system infrastructure and an awareness campaign to promote behaviour change and highlight inappropriate flushing of sanitary items.

The RBMPs are published every six years and are developed and delivered by the Scottish Government, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) and other public bodies.

SEPA’s most recent classification indicated that 66% of Scotland’s water environment overall is already in good condition. This is higher than the average across Europe and significantly higher than England’s 16%.