Water Companies Plan Sewage Pipelines To Improve Water Quality
Over the last few years, water providers in the UK have faced heavy criticism due to poor water quality, their treatment of wastewater and failure to reduce pollution incidents. They are hoping to turn this around by building a pipeline that will move sewage away from areas of conservation.
However, this proposal does not come without cost, as many farmers are upset it could affect their livelihoods, locals believe it will have an impact on their wildlife, and customers will also face higher water bills to pay for it.
What do the water companies want to do?
A number of water companies want to install pipes through the countryside so that treated sewage can be directed into rivers and seas, as opposed to conservation areas.
Although this will increase the pollution in these waterways, they are not under the same legal protection. However, the Environment Agency (EA) sets a limit on the number of times sewage can be released into conservation areas.
The aim is to reduce the amount of sewage in these protected waterways, which has become a growing problem in recent years.
In fact, many water providers are under investigation for their wastewater treatment, with enforcement cases against Anglian Water, Northumbrian Water, South West Water, Thames Water, Wessex Water and Yorkshire Water, among others.
Ofwat chief executive David Black said: “The fact that Ofwat now has enforcement cases with all 11 of the wastewater companies in England and Wales demonstrates how concerned we are about the sector’s environmental performance.”
How the new proposal will affect the environment
However, locals believe the new plans to divert the sewage away from conservation areas and into rivers, lakes and seas will have a negative impact on the environment.
Firstly, it would involve building a pipeline through the countryside, causing damage to land and disruption to the local wildlife.
At the same time, it will affect the creatures that live in those waterways, including fish, otters, insects, invertebrates and birds.
A lawyer with Fish Legal Penny Gane told the BBC: “Water companies in this country were asked to innovate when it came to sewage treatment and moving a problem of pollution in one river to another is not innovation.”
Its impact on farmers
The new scheme will also have a huge impact on farmers, particularly those who will see their land being turned upside down for the installation of the pipework.
It might also mean they cannot use the land where the pipe has been laid, which will affect their crop, and subsequently, their livelihood.
They may not be able to extract water to irrigate the crops if it has a higher pollution content, which means their produce will suffer as a result.
Farmers have also not been given enough warning to make alternative plans for their crops in 2025 and 2026, with rumours only beginning to circulate in August 2024 and work to fit the pipes potentially happening as soon as March 2025.
In fact, water companies do not need planning permission to install the pipes, even on private land, and only have to give one week’s notice before starting work.
Farmer and local councillor from Walton on Trent Amy Wheelton told the news provider: “It’s going through hedges, across farmlands, across roads, it will do massive ecological damage.”
It will result in higher water bills
Another criticism of the plan is that it will cause customers’ bills to increase even more. Ofwat has already provisionally announced a rise in costs of £19 per year between 2025 and 2030, excluding inflation.
This will help cover the £108 billion investment water companies in England and Wales plan to spend to reduce water pollution.
However, water providers wanted bills to increase even more. For instance, Thames Water proposed raising their customers’ bills by £191 before 2030, which Ofwat has reduced to £99.
Thames Water has a debt of more than £15 billion, and has said it actually needs to increase bills to pay up to £263 a year extra if it wants to avoid liquidation, Metro reported.
This will impact a quarter of water customers in the UK, who rely on the provider for their water supply.
Meanwhile, the provider released 72 trillion litres of sewage into the River Thames between 2020 and November 2023, and reported 359 pollution cases in the six months to September 30th 2024, which is a growth of 40 per cent from the year before.
Therefore, the new scheme to build pipes that can divert sewage from conservation areas could help reduce its pollution incidents, as long as it is able to afford it without impacting too heavily on customers.
A prospective surge in price for Thames Water users means now is a good time to switch business water providers before costs soar.