Last weekend the Oxford Cambridge Boat Race prohibited, for the first time ever, the winning team Cox-in-the-River tradition due to E-Coli risk, a direct result of sewage spills in the Thames. Atrocious Thames Water Exec decisions, board room benefits and outrageous operation overspills have impacted on our precious river environment .There is no justification for water companies to profit from illegal spills.
The water companies have been subject under the recent 2021 Environment Act, to high standards and penalties for failure to meet these regulated by Ofwat. So how did this lack in corporate governance happen?
It was the foresight of the Conservative Government back in 2013 that led to the mass roll out of storm overflow monitoring across England which has given us the necessary data to understand the issue of storm overflows and to then act through the Environment Act. As of December 2023, all storm overflows in England are now fitted with monitors. This figure is less than 4% in Scotland where Scottish Water, a public owned water company, operates.
While proposing to abolish Oftwat the water regulator, Ed Davey has not proposed an alternative. Ed Davey has called for a 16% sewage tax on water company profits of £2b but with the cost of elimination of sewage discharges estimated at £120-190 billion it would take more than 300 years to raise, leaving the unacceptable and unviable cost of or £4-6k per household falling on working people .
Ed Davey will be the first to acknowledge that full government ownership of national services including the Post Office which he supervised in 2010-2012 does not always make a fully transparent management structure either. Reports of contamination of The Hogsmill in Kingston which runs next to the Guildhall home to Ed's Lib Dem council team must be his top priority.
The recent problem is exacerbated by high levels of recent rainfall which has caused additional drainage and flooding problems as we have seen at Chessy FC as well as overspills.
In the meantime the sector and the Government are making very significant investments in infrastructure including £4.3b in Thames Tideway, a Super Sewer under The Thames to intercept nasty spills and clean up our river for the good of London, our nature and our residents which will be complete next year and is expected to solve 95% of London overspills.
For excellent background on the Hogsmill Environmental Spills Record
https://kingstoncourier.co.uk/rivers-trust-data-reveals-the-appalling-s…
Up to £11 million in water company fines and penalties will be reinvested back into a new Water Restoration Fund (WRF), Environment Secretary Steve Barclay announced today (Tuesday 9th April).
All water company environmental fines and penalties since April 2022 have been ringfenced to directly improve the water environment.
The Water Restoration Fund will offer grant funding on a competitive basis to support local groups, farmers and landowners and community-led schemes, bolstering their capacity and capabilities for on-the-ground projects to improve the water environment. This could include activities that improve biodiversity and community access to blue and green spaces in areas where water companies have been issued with fines or penalties.
This delivers on the government’s long-term plan, set out in its Plan for Water, to clean up our waters and make polluters pay for the damage they cause to the environment.
The launch of the Fund follows significant action taken in recent months to hold water companies to account, including a ban on bonuses for water company executives where firms have committed serious criminal breaches, subject to Ofwat consultation, and plans to quadruple the Environment Agency’s regulatory capacity, enabling them to carry out 4,000 water company inspections by the end of this financial year.
Funding for the Water Restoration Fund comes exclusively from water company fines and penalties. These penalties and fines are additional to any reparations that water companies make when they have breached environmental regulations.
I also deplore that investors and lenders including Macquarie have profited disproportionately from Thames Water.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/fa5c4b8f-0e81-412c-93fa-5d8f047c4717…
