Sewage spills in England fell by virtually a fifth final 12 months, figures present – however the Environment Agency (EA) says this was not due to actions taken by water corporations.
A complete of 301,091 spills had been recorded final 12 months – 824 a day on common – in response to EA information overlaying all 10 water and sewerage corporations in England.
The determine for 2021 was 372,533 – a mean of 1,020 a day.
The EA stated the lower in spills final 12 months was “largely down to dry weather, not water company action”.
It urged water corporations to enhance the upkeep, administration and funding of their techniques.
“We want to see quicker progress from water companies on reducing spills and acting on monitoring data,” the EA’s govt director John Leyland stated.
“We expect them to be fully across the detail of their networks and to maintain and invest in them to the high standard that the public expect and the regulator demands.”
Water corporations ought to solely discharge sewage from storm overflows during times of heavy rain and below strictly permitted situations.
However campaigners say they’re discharging rather more usually than they need to, together with when there was no rain.
Water minister Rebecca Pow stated: “The volume of sewage being discharged into our waters is unacceptable and we are taking action to make sure polluters are held to account.
“By bringing in complete monitoring – up from simply 7% in 2010 to essentially the most intensive degree ever now being at 91% – this authorities and its regulators have enabled the extent of sewage discharges to be revealed in order that we’re higher outfitted to deal with this problem.”
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More than 13,320 storm overflows had been monitored to supply the EA’s information, and three% had been discovered to have spilt greater than 100 occasions over the 12 months, in contrast with 5% in 2021.
On common, every overflow spilled 23 occasions over the 12 months – in contrast with 29 occasions in 2021.
Some 18% of storm overflows didn’t spill in any respect, in contrast with 13% the earlier 12 months.
Just over 9 in 10 storm overflows are at the moment offering information, marginally up from 89% in 2021. The EA has demanded that water corporations match screens on all storm overflows by the tip of 2023.
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Jim McMahon MP, Labour’s shadow surroundings secretary, stated: “That the Tories continue to give the green light to 824 raw sewage discharges a day into villages, towns and cities across our country shows they have no respect for British communities.
“People ought to be capable of simply get pleasure from the place they stay, work and vacation with out having to fret in regards to the Tory sewage scandal sullying their areas. Local companies should not have to fret about authorities failures hitting tourism commerce.”
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