🔎 What’s going on?
Earlier this week (on 26th October 2021), the UK government did a stunning U-turn on the sewage bill by strengthening the Environmental Bill.
💩 What does this mean?
Last week (w/c 18th October), a proposal from the Lords to the Environment Bill which would have placed legal restrictions on water companies to reduce sewage discharges was defeated (265 voted no vs 202 voted yes). A social media outcry from the public followed and the government U-turned on the sewage bill. This particular sewage bill refers to storm overflows.
England’s sewer system was largely built during the Victorian era (about 150 years ago) in the 19th century. In rare circumstances, when there is heavy and/or prolonged rainfall, the sewer systems become overwhelmed and so water companies are allowed to release untreated wastewater (or raw sewage) into rivers and coastal seas. This amount is regulated by the Environment Agency, however, recently it’s been discovered that water companies have been pumping out illegal amounts of sewage into rivers and coastal seas.
❓ Why should I care?
Rivers and seas are the bedrock of biodiversity. Pollution in the form of untreated sewage and chemicals is harmful not just to marine animals but often this pollution finds itself back into our food chain as clams, lobsters, prawns, and fishes ingest the harmful containments.
The term ‘pay to pollute’ is at play here. Here’s what this term means - earlier this year, Southern Water was fined £90 million for dumping up to 21 billion liters of sewage over six years in protected seas off England’s southern coasts. While Thames Water was handed £4m and £2.3 million fines for separate incidents. According to the Environment Agency, in just 2020, water companies discharged raw sewage more than 400,000 times, for more than 3 million hours into our rivers in England. That’s a lot of raw sewage...or untreated contaminated wastewater and water companies would rather ‘pay to pollute’ than treat the wastewater.
A couple of reasons provided by MPs not initially backing the sewage bill include 1) there are huge costs attached to improving the Victorian sewage infrastructure to manage storm overflows. Estimates range are from between £150 billion to £650 billion. And 2) an impact assessment was not included in the bill. The bill was voted down because of concern that the huge costs placed on water companies would be pretty much passed onto consumers.
🚦 Where do we need to be?
Wastewater (raw sewage) can be treated in many ways via biological and chemical methods. Preferably, nature-based solutions that follow circular economy principles should be deployed rather than chemical solutions. We need a radical overhaul whereby wastewater is treated before it’s discharged into any waterway, whether that’s rivers or seas.
A mindset shift on how costs associated with the upgrade to infrastructure are allocated between all relevant stakeholders such as the government, the water companies, and consumers. The UK is the only country in the world that has a privatised water sector. This means that 32 privately owned water companies are responsible for operating and maintaining water and sewerage infrastructure across the country, not the UK government. However, in this instance, the government could subsidise some of the costs as required, to ensure that water companies do not pass on the full cost to consumers.
👤 What can I do about it?
As an individual, there are two things you can do: 1) Raise awareness. Public awareness is very low on the topic of river pollution, so inform yourselves about what is actually happening and share this with friends and colleagues. The Rivers Trust is a good resource to start your journey. 2) Don’t flush wet wipes and sanitary pads down the toilet, they cause fatbergs and block sewage.
As a business, invest in technologies that can treat all waste and wastewater on-site. This will ensure that all discharges are treated before they enter our waterways.
Related: UN announces end of leaded petrol era
Photo by Patrick Federi on Unsplash