Britain's dirty water problem will not wash away

Living on an island famed for its rainy climate, water is one thing residents of Great Britain should not have to worry about — but increasingly, they do.

Pollution of its waterways and coastal waters, the perilous state of sewer infrastructure and damage being done to the environment and human health have turned water into a major crisis.

In recent years, Britian's rivers and beaches have been blighted by more frequent pollution incidents, often caused by an ageing sewer system struggling to handle capacity, and dumping untreated sewage in the sea. Intensive agricultural production has led to rivers being flooded with farm waste, and extreme weather has added to the strain.

In November, a protest march entitled Flood the Streets will take place in London, bringing together thousands of people who are concerned about Britain's waterways.

In the late 1980s, the regional water authorities in England and Wales were sold off by the government, in the hope that as private companies, they would become more efficient, benefitting customers, and to reduce government debt by eliminating the need to borrow money and support them.

Jonathan Portes, a professor of economics and public policy at King's College London, was a civil servant in the Treasury in the 1980s, working on the privatization of the water sector.

It was part of a wider sell-off of state bodies that included some, such as British Airways and British Petroleum, that were competing in commercial markets. But, Portes said it was never realistic that selling off the water companies would have similar results.

"The efficiency argument makes more sense with a company like British Airways, which is in a competitive market, than it does with a monopoly like a water company," he said.

"Selling off institutions that relied upon government borrowing, to reduce the deficit and enable tax cuts, made political sense but not economic sense, and the third reason was to encourage a so-called shareholder democracy, where lots of private investors would have a financial stake."

Many shareholders sold at the first chance of a quick profit, rendering the last motivation redundant, Portes said, and despite early promise, the other reasons fared little better.

"In the first 10 or so years there was limited success in increasing investment and productivity but the water industry regulatory framework was initially very generous. The Treasury knew it was selling off the companies for less than they were worth," he explained.

"It was hoped that over time, the rules would be sharpened up and there'd be a better deal for bill payers, but exactly the opposite has happened."

Perfect storm

A combination of factors such as decaying infrastructure, the financial crisis piling more pressure on debt-laden companies, extreme weather conditions, and a government preoccupied first by Britain's departure from the European Union and then the pandemic have created a perfect storm for the industry.

At the same time, bills charged by the privatized water companies continue to rise, and all over the country, beaches have been closed and swimmers forced out of rivers because of pollution, mainly from sewage discharges. A problem that has been building up for years has now literally come to the surface in the most visible way, causing environmental damage and health concerns.

According to figures quoted by the House of Lords, in 2019 the Environment Agency, or EA, reported that just 14 percent of rivers in England had a good ecological status, and none had a good chemical status.

In 2022, the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee concluded that "rivers in England are in a mess", highlighting what it called a "chemical cocktail of sewage, agricultural waste and plastic … polluting the water of many of the country's rivers", and saying that "a step change in regulatory action, water company investment … is urgently required to restore rivers to good ecological health".

Data published by the EA in March 2024 showed untreated sewage discharges by water companies into England's rivers rose from 1.8 million hours in 2022 to 3.6 million hours in 2023, and the number of individual spill incidents rose from 301,000 to 464,000.

"For the nation to have cleaner rivers and seas, water companies must take responsibility to understand the root cause of their problems," said EA Chair Alan Lovell.

A survey by radio station LBC in October 2024 took samples from one section of Britain's longest river, the Severn, near a sewage works in the area covered by the Severn Trent Water company.

It found phosphate levels six times higher than the upper limit set by the EA, and ammonia at twice the level at which water wildlife damage occurs.

For E. Coli bacteria, however, the levels were almost 55 times higher than what is deemed to be poor quality bathing water.

Another survey, carried out across the UK in September by research group Earthwatch, found significant traces of chemicals and stimulants including caffeine, antidepressants and painkillers in river water.

This, Earthwatch's head of policy Sasha Woods told the Guardian newpaper, "shows either that sewage effluent is not being cleaned properly by water companies ... or that too much raw sewage is going into rivers, or both of those things."

A new government may mean a fresh start, but as Portes said, change takes time.

"It's a basic test of competence for the new government to say 'we will not be like the last lot', and to make sure that the rivers and seas aren't full of things that shouldn't be there, but none of these things are easy, and they all take time and money," he explained.

In a world of such competing political priorities, he added, water should be near the top of the list.

"Talking about what needs to be done is straightforward, delivering that change, less so," Portes said. "Water is something very visible and people care about it. You can't say it should be the top priority above things like the National Health Service, but it should certainly be in the top set."

Action stations

The Houses of Parliament are on the bank of the Thames, and the November march aims to bring the issue of pollution to its attention, culminating in a rally outside Parliament.

"The march is borne out of the lack of detail from new government plans to tackle the devastation of our waterways, and also the scale of corruption and greed in the sector," Amy Fairman, head of campaigns at pressure group River Action, said.

"We've got a coalition of more than 70 groups telling the government it's their job to stop the poisoning of our waterways by enforcing the law and reforming regulations. We want polluters held to account, then the incentive to pollute for profit vanishes."

Before the pandemic pushed all other concerns aside, many government promises for post-Brexit Britain related to cutting red tape and easing rules. But in the case of environmental protection, Fairman said, this is not progress.

"Since privatization, we saw profiteering off pollution due to the rolling back of funding for environmental enforcement agencies, enabling polluters to get away with it," she explained.

"Cutting red tape for the environmental sector means cutting regulations which exist to uphold the law, so if you cut them, who are you cutting red tape for? It's not to help the environment, so as a result, we've seen a huge decline in nature all over the country and also a decline in the ability to hold to account the people who cause it."

In October 2024, for the fourth year in a row, water companies were ordered by the water regulator OFWAT to repay customers for missing targets on pollution and repairing leaks, which currently mean one-fifth of water in the system is lost. Customer refunds will only be small, however, and in the case of Thames Water, will be dwarfed by the bill increase of 94 pounds ($122) that it wishes to impose over the next five years.

"It is for water companies and their boards, multi-billion pound enterprises, to turnaround their performance," OFWAT's CEO David Black told the BBC. "We agree there is much more to be done and we will continue to work to drive the sector to perform better."

Although she has sympathy with the situation the government has inherited, Fairman said deeds not words are needed before the crisis gets worse.

"In the run-up to the election, there were some good manifesto promises, but that's just tinkering round the edges," she said.

"The government's Water Special Measures Bill looks at fines for water company executives, but nowhere does it talk about increasing the enforcement of the law or increasing budgets to do so. They're good soundbites, but we need an action plan.

"We can't live without water in terms of supply and health, so on all agendas, water has to be up there on top of the political in-tray."