Water companies are under pressure to upgrade infrastructure to handle population growth and climate change, with improvements expected to cost billions.
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00:00particularly with sewage pollution and combined sewage outflows, you can go walk along the
00:04river and you can go to a pipe and point at it and you can see where the sewage is coming
00:09into your river and then you can track it back and you can complain to your local water
00:14company or whoever it might be of what's going on.
00:16The scale of sewage spills in England and Wales has worsened, with data from the Environment
00:21Agency showing over 3.5 million hours of sewage discharges in 2023, more than double the figure
00:27from the previous year. While Water UK, which represents water companies, blamed heavy rain
00:32and improved data collection, environmental charities argue that companies have failed
00:37to address leaking infrastructure.
00:39Yes, we can point at the sewage overflows there, but agricultural impacts are there,
00:45urban impacts are there. Are we as a growing urban population thinking about what we're
00:50doing at home?
00:51The practice of prematurely discharging sewage, known as dry spilling, is illegal and can
00:56happen even when there's no rainfall to justify the overflow. As scrutiny of the water
01:01industry grows, Water UK announced plans for an ambitious modernisation project, the largest
01:06since the Victorian era, to improve sewer systems and reduce sewage discharges. However,
01:12the necessary upgrades come with a hefty price tag, with customer bills expected to rise
01:16by around £156 annually over the next five years to cover the costs.
01:20They see their water bills going up and they don't see any increase in improvement in the
01:24environment and people rightly are annoyed.
01:28Regulators, including Ofwat and the Environment Agency, are continuing their investigations
01:33into all water companies across England and Wales, with penalties already proposed for
01:37several major providers for their failure to address sewage discharges. Meanwhile, concerns
01:42over the health risks of polluted waters are escalating.
01:46Experts warn that untreated sewage can introduce harmful bacteria, posing serious health risks.
01:51The situation has led to calls for more frequent testing in the UK's rivers, lakes and seas,
01:56as well as real-time monitoring to keep the public informed about water quality.