Strictest targets pledged to tackle England sewage discharges

The government has published a plan to reduce sewage discharges into England's rivers.

The largest infrastructure programme in water company history will have to be delivered.

Heavy rain caused water companies to discharge sewage on nearly 50 beaches.

The new plan was derided by the Liberal Democrats.

The mess made by water companies will be paid for by consumers.

Official figures show that water companies discharged sewage into England's rivers more than 400,000 times in 2020.

The government's targets were calledflimsy by the Liberal Democrats.

Over the course of 25 years, water companies will have to invest over half a billion dollars in infrastructure improvements.

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 the year 2035, according to the report.

In order to reduce the use of storm overflows, water companies will be investing more than 3 billion dollars in the next ten years.

We have had storm overflows since the Victorian era and they have always been used as an emergency release valve, but they are starting in some cases to be used too often.

Over the last 40 or 50 years, the issue has not been addressed.

There would be a modest increase in water bills over time, but it would be a price people would be willing to pay.

The average annual increase in water bills will be about $12 between now and 2030.

The Environment Agency is investigating how all wastewater companies manage their treatment.

Enforcement cases are being pursued against several water companies.

Reports of sewage pollution have increased over the last few weeks, causing public anger to build.

Tim Farron said there will be 325,000 sewage dumps a year in our waterways by the year 2030.

Our beaches would have been filled with sewage by the time these flimsy targets were in place.

The plan was described as a "shame from one end to the other." It would allow water companies to dump sewage into rivers.

Water companies should invest more in infrastructure.

Consumers are being asked to pay for a second time to clean up England's waterways.

Jim McMahon is the Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. According to last year's data, we'd face more than four million sewage spill events in our country between now and the year 205.

Measures to eliminate the discharge of raw sewage in our natural environment were blocked by the Conservatives last year.

South West Water welcomed the Government's storm overflows discharge reduction plan to improve the water industry's infrastructure network and improve the health of our rivers and seas. Improvements to our wastewater assets and environmental performance are some of the things we'll be investing in.