18 Oct 2023

The Defra press release highlights UK-wide consultation launched to ban wet wipes containing plastic Proposed ban will tackle plastic pollution in marine environment and reduce microplastics entering wastewater treatment plants Proposal delivers on the UK Government’s Plan for Water, delivering more investment, stronger regulation and tougher enforcement across the water system A consultation on banning wet wipes […]

18 Oct 2023

A new online tool which highlights where the opportunities are to install nature-based solutions, such as wetlands, to tackle road runoff pollution before it ends up in London’s rivers has gone live. The nation’s rivers are polluted. Along with sewer overflows, littering and misconnected drains, pollution from our roads adds to this cocktail of pollution. Road runoff […]

18 Oct 2023

The Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure has published the Global Infrastructure Resilience Report. The biennial report addresses a crucial void in the ongoing discourse on infrastructure resilience by providing a compelling argument from economic, financial, and political perspectives for prioritizing investments in resilience. It brings together an unprecedented collection of evidence, delivering a strong case […]

18 Oct 2023

“What happens in the Arctic doesn’t stay in the Arctic”: EAC calls for better focus of Arctic issues in Whitehall and funding boost for research Rising sea levels, contributed to by Arctic ice melting, could risk 1.5 million UK properties flooding, with growing evidence suggesting that changes in the Arctic could make weather events in […]

12 Oct 2023

CCW has released its annual household complaint-handling report (pdf). The consumer body says households served by two of England’s water and wastewater companies are being let down by a failure to understand and deal with the causes of high levels of complaints from their customers. Highlights include: 232,817 complaints were made to water companies in […]

12 Oct 2023

An investigation by the Guardian and Watershed Investigations has highlighted how hundreds of potentially toxic road runoff outfalls are polluting England’s rivers. No regulator is monitoring the scale of impact of dangerous chemicals on wildlife or public health. Last month, National Highways reported it had assessed its discharge points and found 1,236 outfalls and soakaways […]

12 Oct 2023

With party conference season coming to an end and a general election on the horizon, it’s worth looking at what a new government might mean for the water sector. The Labour Party said it would empower the water regulator Ofwat to ban the payment of bonuses to water bosses who are found to pump significant […]

12 Oct 2023

Analysis published in the journal Nature Communications shows at least $2.8tn in damage from 2000 to 2019 through worsened storms, floods and heatwaves The damage caused by the climate crisis through extreme weather has cost $16m (£13m) an hour for the past 20 years, according to a new estimate. Storms, floods, heatwaves and droughts have […]