29 Sep 2022
The Environment Agency (EA) has been accused of allowing water firms to pollute England’s rivers, the BBC has reported. Whistleblowers said it ignored its duties and failed to stop firms pouring raw sewage into the country’s rivers. The claims feature in the film “SEVERN: the poisoning of Britain’s Amazon”. However, the EA said […]
29 Sep 2022
The BBC reported that the Undertones singer Feargal Sharkey has made a surprise appearance at the Labour Party conference to make a speech on water pollution. The environmental campaigner and Teenage Kicks singer says water companies are “profiteering” while every river in England is polluted, often by the industry itself. The rock band singer highlights […]
22 Sep 2022
A viewpoint from Veronica Edmonds-Brown, Senior Lecturer in Aquatic Ecology, University of Hertfordshire. An extract from a piece first published in The Conversation: As a child swimming off the coast of south Devon in the 1960s, I believed the warm water passing through my legs was the Gulf Stream current. Now, as an adult, I […]
15 Sep 2022
On his first day in office the newly appointed environment secretary ordered water company chief executives to submit plans to make “significant improvements” to reduce sewage discharged into waterways within two weeks. Ranil Jayawardena said his message to sector heads had been that the current approach is “not good enough”. Water companies given two week […]
08 Sep 2022
UKHSA and MHRA are expanding polio sewage surveillance to a range of areas outside of the capital. Following the findings of poliovirus in sewage samples collected from the London Beckton Sewage Treatment Works, which covers parts of North and East London, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) working with the Medicines and Healthcare product Regulatory […]
01 Sep 2022
UK Government launch Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction plan Defra have announced the new storm overflows discharge reduction plan, which sets stringent new targets to protect people and the environment. This will require water companies to deliver the largest infrastructure programme in water company history. As we have previously covered, the announcement follows a series of […]
01 Sep 2022
News outlets have reported that the UK government’s plan to cut millions of hours of raw sewage discharges by water companies each year is facing a judicial review on the grounds that it is unlawful. The conservationist charity WildFish is calling for the storm overflow reduction strategy, published on 26th August, to be withdrawn immediately, […]
01 Sep 2022
Sir James Bevan, the CEO of the Environment Agency, has said that Britons need to be ‘less squeamish’ about drinking water from sewage. Writing in the Sunday Times [paywall] and reported in the Guardian and Evening Standard. He said it was “perfectly safe and healthy, but not something many fancy”. Sir James Bevan outlined measures […]
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