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As a wild swimmer I have a particular interest in the Environment Agency’s statistics for spills from storm overflows published today. The bald figures are quite disturbing but, having swum 4 times per week throughout the reporting period, I’ve never come across a turd and I’ve never been ill.
There has been a 56% increase in sewage spills in 2023 compared to 2022. How do we know this?
We know it because 100% of storm overflows are now continuously monitored. In 2010 when Conservatives came into government only 7% of them were monitored. Previous administrations weren’t even collecting the data and so had no handle on the size of the problem. Now we know and we can take effective action.
Storm overflows are a legacy of our Victorian sewage system where rainwater drains into the same sewers as our lavatories. But not all storm overflows result in a sewage spill, that only happens either by accident or, when deliberate, to avoid sewage backing-up to our lavatories.
Because the system is shared with rainwater, to be fair, the weather is bound to be a major factor influencing the statistics. 2023 was the 6th wettest on record, compared to 2022 which was the 8th driest.
The Government requires the water companies to make the necessary investment to end sewage spills. There has been a fourfold increase in inspections with 500 additional staff to carry them out.
Since 2015 the Environment Agency has concluded 60 prosecutions resulting in £150 million of fines from the water companies.
Sorting this legacy is going to take time, but this is the first government to get the measure of it and address it