Serious pollution incidents from water firms up 60% last year, watchdog says

Independent

7 days ago

The number of serious pollution incidents caused by water firms across England rose by 60% in 2024 compared with the previous year, the Environment Agency said.
The watchdog revealed consistently poor performance from all nine water and sewerage firms in the country despite expectations for incidents to decrease.
The Environment Agency assesses all pollution incidents from water firms into categories, with category 1 (major) and category 2 (significant) being the most serious, which can have a highly negative impact on wildlife, ecosystems and swimmers.
Last year, 75 category 1 and 2 incidents were recorded, up from 47 serious incidents the previous year.
Three water firms – Thames Water, Southern Water and Yorkshire Water – were responsible for 81% of the serious incidents, according to its findings.
Thames Water was responsible for 33, Southern Water for 15 and Yorkshire Water for 13.
Meanwhile, just two companies – Northumbrian Water and Wessex Water – had no serious incidents last year, meeting the Environment Agencies expectations to see a trend to zero pollution incidents by 2025.
Overall, the watchdog said all pollution incidents increased by 29% with water companies recording 2,801, up from 2,174 in 2023.
The watchdog said it was clear some companies are failing to meet its targets.
It attributed the rise in incidents last year to persistent underinvestment in new infrastructure, poor asset maintenance, and reduced resilience because of the impacts of climate change.
But it is understood the agency is still investigating the pollution incidents and their causes more closely to understand the major increase and decide on any action, particularly at Thames, which saw serious incidents double from 14 to 33.
An increasing trend in pollution spills from pipes carrying wastewater uphill emerged last year, accounting for 20% of the serious incidents, the watchdog said, adding that these affected some protected waters for wildlife and swimming.
The Environment Agency also carried out more inspections of firms last financial year at more than 4,000, meaning it also discovered more non-compliance from firms, with 24% of sites breaching their permits.
Alan Lovell, chairman of the Environment Agency said: 'This report demonstrates continued systemic failure by some companies to meet their environmental targets.
'The water industry must act urgently to prevent pollution from occurring and to respond rapidly when it does.
'We have made significant changes to tighten our regulation of the water industry and ensure companies are held to account. With a dedicated larger workforce and increased funding, our officers are uncovering and acting on failures to comply with environmental law.'
Environment Secretary Steve Reed called the figures 'disgraceful' and a 'stark reminder' of how underinvestment and weak regulation have led to sewage polluting England's waterways.
'In just one year, this new Government has banned unfair bonuses for polluting water bosses, brought in jail sentences for pollution, and secured £104 billion to upgrade crumbling sewage pipes – one of the biggest infrastructure investments in history,' he said.
'Next week the Independent Water Commission will recommend changes to strengthen the rules so we can clean up our rivers, lakes and seas for good.'
James Wallace, chief executive of River Action, said the figures 'expose a brutal truth'.
'Serious pollution incidents are rising, sewage discharges remain rampant, and our rivers are spiralling toward ecological collapse,' he said.
'This is not just regulatory failure; it is a national disgrace.'
Under the Water (Special Measures) Act introduced by the Government last year, the watchdog will have greater powers to take swift action against polluting companies.
To boost funding for water regulation, the Environment Agency is also consulting on a new levy on the water sector to recover the cost of enforcement activities while the Environment Department (Defra) last week confirmed a 64% increase in its funding from 2023/2024.