Monday, May 02, 2022
The scandal of our polluted rivers
The Guardian reports on Liberal Democrat research that has found that untreated sewage was discharged into England’s coastal bathing waters for more than 160,000 hours last year. This not just confined to England, as there are a similar problems in Wales, though here it is the Welsh Labour Government that is responsible for regulation. This is backed up by Figures collated by the campaign group Top of the Poops, which reveal that including the bathing waters in Wales, water companies released untreated sewage for 217,804 hours.
The paper says that data compiled by the party using Environment Agency figures on 2021 discharges shows that water companies released raw sewage 25,000 times into designated bathing waters off the English coast:
The bathing water designations – which were created by the EU – are supposed to highlight the country’s cleanest and safest waters for the public. The quality of the water is publicly identified on signs at the bathing beaches, ranging from excellent to poor.
The longest discharges into bathing waters were carried out by United Utilities, which released untreated sewage into sea-swimming spots in its area for almost 75,000 hours. The company’s worst-hit bathing water site was Morecambe South beach.
Southern Water, which was last year fined a record £90m for spilling billions of litres of raw sewage into Hampshire and Kent coastal waters, was responsible for 20,367 hours of untreated sewage discharges into designated bathing spots off the coast in their area.
South West Water discharged sewage into bathing beauty spots for 43,901 hours, with their longest discharge released at Ilfracombe’s Wildersmouth Beach, lasting 1,833 hours.
The figures were released as the official sea-swimming season opened on Sunday. This marks the start of annual monitoring of bathing-water quality, which helps to inform the public about the water at beaches they visit. The season lasts until September.
These figures back up the Liberal Democrats call for a sewage tax on water companies’ profits to be used to clean up coastlines, rivers and lakes. In 2021 water companies released raw sewage into all coastal waters and rivers in England for more than 2.7m hours, in the same year the firms made £2.8bn in operating profits and paid out £27m in bonuses to senior executives.
Surely it is time to reverse that trend.
The paper says that data compiled by the party using Environment Agency figures on 2021 discharges shows that water companies released raw sewage 25,000 times into designated bathing waters off the English coast:
The bathing water designations – which were created by the EU – are supposed to highlight the country’s cleanest and safest waters for the public. The quality of the water is publicly identified on signs at the bathing beaches, ranging from excellent to poor.
The longest discharges into bathing waters were carried out by United Utilities, which released untreated sewage into sea-swimming spots in its area for almost 75,000 hours. The company’s worst-hit bathing water site was Morecambe South beach.
Southern Water, which was last year fined a record £90m for spilling billions of litres of raw sewage into Hampshire and Kent coastal waters, was responsible for 20,367 hours of untreated sewage discharges into designated bathing spots off the coast in their area.
South West Water discharged sewage into bathing beauty spots for 43,901 hours, with their longest discharge released at Ilfracombe’s Wildersmouth Beach, lasting 1,833 hours.
The figures were released as the official sea-swimming season opened on Sunday. This marks the start of annual monitoring of bathing-water quality, which helps to inform the public about the water at beaches they visit. The season lasts until September.
These figures back up the Liberal Democrats call for a sewage tax on water companies’ profits to be used to clean up coastlines, rivers and lakes. In 2021 water companies released raw sewage into all coastal waters and rivers in England for more than 2.7m hours, in the same year the firms made £2.8bn in operating profits and paid out £27m in bonuses to senior executives.
Surely it is time to reverse that trend.
Comments:
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This is really good research, and I'm sure this issue could be a vote-winner for us. However, I'm not sure the story is cutting through. At least not yet. Mavbe our messaging needs to be more aggressive and eye-catching? 'LibDems demand Shite Tax' I'm only half joking. 'Bollocks to Brexit' worked OK for us in 2019 after all. (At least until we cocked it up at the end of the year).
Our natural penchant for reserved, polite language is just not suited to some issues. I think we should go big and bold on this. The tone should be utter fury, "They're pouring raw shit into our rivers and beaches, where our children will play this summer." I reckon any votes we'd lose for bad language would be outweighed by new ones from people liking the message, and the passion.
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Our natural penchant for reserved, polite language is just not suited to some issues. I think we should go big and bold on this. The tone should be utter fury, "They're pouring raw shit into our rivers and beaches, where our children will play this summer." I reckon any votes we'd lose for bad language would be outweighed by new ones from people liking the message, and the passion.
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