It stinks! Why we need a sewage tax on water companies now

Pippa by the River Mel, one of South Cambridgeshire’s precious chalk streams

I am in the Cambridge Independent today highlighting the chemical cocktail of waste polluting our rivers and chalk streams and the need for a sewage tax on water companies to clean up the waterways in our region.

Government policy on this issue, including its recent failure to vote in legislation that would tighten up regulations for water companies, has failed to solve the issue of untreated sewage being dumped in our waterways, often in breach of permits that allow water companies to only do this in exceptional circumstances.

Only 14 percent of rivers in England were found to be in good ecological condition according to a recent report by the Environmental Audit Committee. A Lib Dem compiled list of the longest sewage discharges in the region showed the worst offence in Norfolk by Anglian Water lasted almost 8,000 hours, whilst the third worst in St. Ives lasted 6,000 hours. Sewer overflows in 2019 also included 88 spillages in the River Rhee in Haslingfield for a total of 1,009 hours. Cambridgeshire is one of the driest areas in the country and lower levels of water mean pollution is less diluted, with nitrates and phosphates from untreated sewage in higher concentrations. Chalk Streams are precious for wildlife and highly valued by all of us. The Rivers Mel, Rhee and Granta are amongst the best chalk streams in the country but suffering from high concentrations of raw sewage. The worrying decline of water quality in chalk streams is also evident in the River Cam, Mill River and Swavesey Drain. Some 23 water plan species out of 66 once recorded here have been lost and there has been a significant decline in breeding brown trout populations.

The staggering profits of water companies should be reinvested through a sewage tax to protect our streams and rivers. Anglian Water made £43.6 million pre tax profit in 2020 and a sewage tax on these profits would create a new fund of £7million to help clean up waterways in the region. Tory Ministers should also require Ofwat to look at its powers to limit the payment of bonuses to water company executives whilst companies persistently breach their permits. This was one of the key recommendations of the Environmental Audit Committee report.

It is also really important to highlight that Government policy puts all the burden on the Environment Agency to monitor sewage, but successive cuts to EA funding has left it struggling for resources, with staff recently told to ignore reports of so called “low impact” pollution events because it is not resourced to investigate them.

The latest Government statements on this issue are little more than a slurry of words that have failed to solve this issue, leaving our precious chalk stream habitats and our water supplies under constant threat. The Liberal Democrats will continue to campaign for more action, including a sewage tax, to clean up our waterways before it is too late.

The River Mel Chalk Stream. Photo: Charles Rangeley-Wilson