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Thames Water pumped 72 billion litres of sewage into the Thames in two years | E+T Magazine (eandt.theiet.org)


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Liberal Democrats and environmental campaigners have accused the government of “standing idly by” while England’s rivers are “poisoned”. 

Thames Water has pumped at least 72 billion litres of sewage into the River Thames since 2020 – an amount roughly equal to 29,000 Olympic swimming pools.

The data was obtained by the Liberal Democrats through an environmental Freedom of Information request, as first reported by the BBC. 

The water company discharged at least 14.3 billion litres of sewage into the Thames in 2022, and at least 32 billion in 2021 – making it the worst year on record for sewage discharges into the river.

But the total volume of sewage discharged is likely to be far higher than this. Thames Water only has sewage monitors to measure volume in some locations, which it used during the construction of the Thames Tideway Tunnel. 

Thames Water pumped 72 billion litres of sewage into the Thames in two years | E+T Magazine

Currently, water firms have no legal obligation to report the amount of sewage discharged. They are only required to report the number of hours it was released for. However, the Liberal Democrats have been calling for water companies to be more transparent with their data on sewage spills.

Party representatives described the data they obtained from Thames Water as a “horrifying revelation” that amounted to an “environmental crime”.

Mogden near Twickenham in south-west London was the site most impacted by sewage spills since 2020. As many as 17.1 billion litres of sewage was found to have been discharged on the site.

She also called for Thames Water to be “ripped up” and replaced by a “public good company”, with a board populated by environmentalists, and said that the government should force water firms to install new monitors that measure the volume of sewage discharged.

“The era of water firms putting profit before the environment must come to an end,” she said. “These water firms are committing environmental crimes which are destroying our rivers and wildlife habitats, all whilst pocketing eye-watering sums of money. 

“With almost every sewage monitor unable to measure the litres of sewage discharged, this figure is likely to enter the trillions. Water firms are fitting monitors which simply aren’t up to the job and hide the true horrors of their filthy sewage habits.”

Thames Water replied by saying its monitoring system “cannot measure volumes and was not designed to do so”. It stressed that “near real-time data” is published for each of the company's 468 permitted discharge locations, which provides the number and duration of discharges.

The company added it was planning to “upgrade over 250 of our sewage treatment works and sewers” and stressed it has “started the £100m upgrade of Mogden sewage treatment works, which will increase capacity and reduce the number of storm discharges from the site”.

It is also “increasing sewage treatment capacity at a number of our other sewage works across the Thames Valley”.

The government said it believed “the volume of sewage being discharged into our waters is utterly unacceptable” and that “water companies must not profit from environmental damage”.

"We are scrapping the cap on civil penalties, have set stringent targets for water companies to reduce storm overflows and the Environment Agency has launched the largest criminal investigation ever into potential non-compliance at wastewater treatment works,” it added. 

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Half of water companies paid bonuses despite sewage crisis (www.telegraph.co.uk)


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Half of water companies paid out bonuses for the past financial year despite 【146†the sewage crisis】, the regulator has revealed.

Ofwat revealed on Wednesday that five out of 10 water companies 【147†that deal with sewage】 had chosen to award performance-related bonuses.

Northumbrian Water, Wessex Water, Anglian Water, United Utilities and Severn Trent all paid out bonuses to at least one of their top executives. These were paid by shareholders rather than customer bills.

United Utilities had the most 【148†sewage spills】 during 2022, according to data from the Environment Agency, and Wessex Water and Northumbrian were in the top five for spills per sewage outflow.

Anglian and Wessex Water also came at the bottom of the Environment Agency’s league table for environmental performance last year, scoring two out of four stars.

Steven Mogford, who stepped down as the chief executive of United Utilities in March, received a £426,000 bonus, while Liv Garfield, the boss of Severn Trent, was awarded £359,000 and Peter Simpson, the Anglian Water CEO, got £302,000.

【149†Water companies】 pay out bonuses based on several different performance criteria, of which their environmental record is one. Wessex Water said no directors received any of the bonus potential relating to environmental performance in 2022-23.

Half of water companies paid bonuses despite sewage crisis

Ofwat said just three companies, Portsmouth Water, South West Water and Severn Trent, had fallen short of its expectations on customer and environmental performances linked to bonuses, but added that from next year it would start blocking companies from paying out bonuses from customer bills, a new power gained this year.

“It is welcome that a number of companies responded to our calls for a change in how bonuses are awarded,” said David Black, the Ofwat chief executive. “But we want to see more transparency around this, and if companies do not meet the criteria we have set out, from next year we will intervene to block customers from paying for these bonuses.”

The Lib Dems, who have made 【150†the sewage crisis】 a pillar of their campaigning, said all water firm executive bonuses should be banned.

“Bonuses should be a reward for success, not environmental vandalism,” said Tim Farron, the party’s environment spokesman. “It is frankly a scandal that the Conservative Government is just sitting on their hands. They are allowing a toothless regulator to let water firms get away with it.”

Extent of sewage Thames Water pumped into river revealed (www.sustainability-beat.co.uk)


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Thames Water has pumped 72 billion litres of sewage into the River Thames over the last three years, according to new data shared by the Liberal Democrats.

The data, which was revealed by an environmental information request submitted by the party, comes as water companies have been accused of 【28†failing to do enough】 to tackle the problem of sewage overflows.

The capital’s water firm uses volume sewage monitors while constructing the Tideway project, but the water company does not use them across the entire network, meaning that the total volume of sewage is likely to be much higher than these figures.

Extent of sewage Thames Water pumped into river revealed

The sewage monitors revealed that last year at least 14.3 billion litres of sewage was discharged into the Thames, with the worst year on record being 2021 when 32 billion litres of sewage were discharged.

The worst impacted site was Mogden near Twickenham, where 17.1 billion litres of sewage were discharged, while the second most impacted site was Crossness in East London which saw 15.8 billion litres of sewage discharged.

“These horrifying revelations are proof that Thames Water needs to be ripped up. It is outrageous that Conservative ministers continue to sit on their hands and let Thames Water get away with this. The government is standing idly by whilst our rivers are poisoned and water firm execs pocket millions,” said Maura Wilson MP.

“The era of water firms putting profit before the environment must come to an end. These water firms are committing environmental crimes which are destroying wildfire habitats, all whilst pocketing eye-watering sums of money”.

It comes after the firm’s previous boss 【30†Sarah Bentley】 quit earlier this year over the firms environmental record, and concerns at the time around whether it could collapse – with it facing increased public scrutiny and criticism from campaigners.

She added that it was just the “tip of the iceberg” and said “water firms are fitting monitors which simply aren’t up to the job and hide the true horrors of their filthy sewage habits”.

A 【31†Thames Water spokesperson†www.theguardian.com】 told The Guardian newspaper: “at a limited number of sites across the Tideway Tunnel, we have the ability to calculate volume discharged; however, we do not have the ability to do this across our sites”

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