Yesterday, the Environment Agency released its annual sewage data, which revealed that there were 464,056 sewage spills from storm overflows in England last year - 162,965 more than the year before. Wales reported 108,860, while Scotland - with only 4% of its overflows actually monitored - reported 15,289, (so just imagine the real number!). To put that into perspective, water companies in England spent 3,606,170 hours last year, discharging sewage into our waterways. Disgraceful, don’t you think? All those incidences of raw sewage making its way into our waterways, beaches, seas and subsequently further afield…

While the true picture’s pretty hard to fathom, (with figures skewed since the Event Duration Monitors that measure frequency and duration of spills - fitted as part of an ongoing program, are, only now, fitted to all England’s overflows) it’s still not good enough. Nor are the Agency’s promises to increase water company inspections fourfold, “to uncover any non-compliance with environmental permits and take enforcement action when illegal discharges from storm overflows are identified”. It’s too late by then... The damage has been done! Then there’s its: “£180m in fast-tracked water company investment over the next 12 months, expected to prevent more than 8,000 sewage spills polluting English waterways”. Who’s paying for the EVDs, the extra inspections (10,000 each year by 2025!) and subsequent enforcement action? Where’s the £180m coming from? I’ll wager it’s not the water companies themselves, but the taxpayers and water companies’ customers, which means that some are contributing twice! It’s all very well for the Environment Agency to boast that, “No other country has the level of monitoring we do, with 100% of storm overflows in England now fitted with a monitor”. It’s preventing the spillages from happening in the first place that’s important, not catching companies for their transgressions after the event. We’re monitoring something that shouldn’t be happening.

The Government’s bringing in a ban later this year on water company executive board members and chief executives receiving bonuses if the companies for which they’re responsible have committed, “serious criminal breaches”. It’s a good move, but why not go further than that? We shouldn’t be contaminating our environment in the first place, should we? How about reducing the level at which a ‘criminal breach’ takes place? How about a cap on bonuses earned by water company bosses whether they perform well or not, and shareholder pay-outs drastically reduced until the industry’s got its house in order? All this extra effort and expenditure on the part of the authorities shouldn’t be necessary. Water companies ploughing their profits into improving their infrastructure rather than rewarding themselves and their shareholders for a job not very well done, isn’t the way to go, is it?