Senior watchdogs declare tackling sewage risk to public health rests squarely with the water firms

Bacteria from human faeces in rivers that might be ingested by water users is a serious public health issue, and it sits squarely on the shoulders of water companies and their directors to address it according to leading public servants.

The message from England’s chief medical officer Chris Whitty, Ofwat chair, Jonson Cox and Environment Agency chair, Emma Howard Boyd, appeared in yesterday’s Sunday Telegraph. The trio argued that the use of storm overflows to discharge raw sewage must reduce, and discharges of waste containing viable organisms from sewage treatment should be eliminated, as has happened at coastal bathing waters using ultra violet treatment.

The opinion article argued that the issue needs to be seen as a serious public health issue by water companies, government and regulators, “in addition to the ecological and environmental impact which forms the basis for much regulation.” But it went on to say: "The principal public health responsibility for ensuring human faeces and viable human faecal bacteria do not get into waterways rests squarely with the water companies and their directors.

"Ministers have already signalled they want action, and companies should aim to go much faster than the minimum. Regulators will hold companies to account. It is time for wastewater companies to act. It will be a matter of choice if they do not.”