The Department for Environment, Flood and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), has announced the toughest targets ever introduced to crack down on sewage spills, with water companies facing the strictest targets on pollution from sewage under new plans to tackle sewage discharges in our rivers and waters.
The government’s plan will require water companies to deliver their largest ever environmental infrastructure investment - £56 billion capital investment over 25 years - into a long-term programme to tackle storm sewage discharges by 2050. The plan frontloads action in particularly important and sensitive areas including designated bathing waters and high priority ecological sites.
The targets will mean water companies will need to take measures such as increasing the capacity of their networks and treating sewage before its discharged to protect public health and prevent pollution, whilst massively reducing all discharges. Failure to meet these targets could see them face substantial fines or having to return money to customers.
What is the Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan?
The The Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan is the most significant investment and delivery programme ever undertaken by water companies to protect people and the environment.
It is the first-time water companies are required to act to address the discharges. The plan follows ongoing work by the government, the Environment Agency and the regulator Ofwat to drive up water companies’ performance, monitoring and increase accountability. This includes a massive expansion in monitoring frequency and duration of discharges, from approximately 5% in 2016, to nearly 90% in 2021, which has been used to hold companies to account.
Under the plans, water companies will have to achieve a number of targets to ensure so discharges only happen when there is unusually heavy rain and when there is no immediate adverse impact on the local environment.
- By 2035, water companies will have to improve all storm overflows discharging into or near every designated bathing water; and improve 75% of overflows discharging to high priority nature sites.
- By 2050, this will apply to all remaining storm overflows covered by our targets, regardless of location.
The plan will be reviewed again in 2027 to consider the next steps, taking into account of innovation and efficiencies.
The plan also sets out that water companies will be required to publish discharge information in near real time and they will need to commit to tackling the root causes of the issue by taking steps to improve surface water drainage.
In addition, the plan sets out our wider expectations for the water industry, to ensure their infrastructure keeps pace with increasing external pressures, such as urban growth and climate change, to make sure our water supplies remain clean and secure for the future.
The former Environment Secretary George Eustice said:
“This is the first government to take action to end the environmental damage caused by sewage spills. We will require water companies to protect everyone who uses our water for recreation, and ensure storm overflows pose no threat to the environment.
“Water companies will need to invest to stop unacceptable sewage spills so our rivers and coast lines can have greater protection than ever before.”
The Environment Act and sewage discharges
Measures have also been brought forward in the Environment Act to tackle sewage discharges into rivers and waterways, including the requirement for greater transparency from water companies on their storm overflow data.
As a result of this government’s policies to increase monitoring and transparency, the regulators (Environment Agency and Ofwat) launched last year launched the largest criminal and civil investigations into water company sewage discharges ever last year. These investigations took place at over 2200 treatment works. New data came to light as a result of increased monitoring, with 54 prosecutions against water companies since 2015, securing fines of nearly £140 million.
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