a day ago
- Business
- The Herald Scotland
Scottish Water spent £1.4m on sewage blockages since 2021
Scottish Water spent £397,745 in 2021, £539,717 in 2022, £344,303 in 2023, and £136,268 in 2024; for a total of £1,418,033.
The release of the data comes as Scottish Water bosses have been criticised over 'fat cat' salary bonuses in recent months.
Key directors received more than £3m in extra funds between 2010 and 2021, with the increases signed off by then-finance minister John Swinney - despite his stated opposition to public sector pay bonuses for other government-run groups.
£1.4m has been spent to clean up sewage spills. (Image: NQ) Criticism has also been lodged at current boss Alex Plant, who makes £483,000, or £100,000 more than his predecessor Douglas Millican, despite Scottish Government guidance stating his pay should have been 10% less than Millican's.
And workers have been engaged in industrial action with Scottish Water this summer - leading to a £3m bill after ten days of strikes.
A Scottish Water spokesperson explained the organisation's clean-up strategy, telling The Herald:
'Many spills can be caused by chokes or blockages on our network due to people wrongly disposing of wet wipes and sanitary products down toilets or fats, oils and grease down sinks.
'Generally, a clean-up operation involves the removal of sewage-related debris from the areas along the banks of watercourses. This often involves staff wearing PPE collecting the debris in bags and can sometimes include the use of a vactor to suck up material.
'A spill can also be the result of a licensed Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) discharge but, if the overflow is designed properly, the body of water should be sufficiently large to carry the vast majority of debris away.
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The spokesperson continued: 'However, as we've seen earlier this year, when we have long periods of dry weather and watercourses are running lower than usual, we potentially have bigger clean-up operations to carry out.
'Scottish Water deals with over 36,000 blockages a year, with the majority of these due to items wrongly put into the sewer, such as wipes, sanitary products and fat, oil and grease.'
