“The polluter must pay”: Liberal Democrats hit out at water companies dumping sewage in local rivers
Oldham Liberal Democrats have tabled a motion hitting out water companies like United Utilities, who were responsible for hundreds of thousands of sewage dumps in local rivers and waterways over recent years.
Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader councillor Sam Al-Hamdani, who will move the motion on Wednesday 6th September said, “It is absolutely disgusting that the government has allowed these polluting companies to continue dumping sewage into our waterways, despite multiple opportunities to tighten the law. The sewage dumps are taking place in rivers, brooks and streams where people go swimming, boating and fishing.”
United Utilities recorded the second highest number of sewage dumps in 2022, at more than 69,000. According to data analysed by the Liberal Democrats, those discharges lasted for more than 425,00 hours.
In Oldham alone, raw sewage has been discharged into our waterways more than 2,500times since 2021, lasting for more than 14,000 hours.
United Utilities also reported one of the highest overall spends on bonuses for its senior staff. The company awarded a whopping £4.2 million in bonuses last year alone.
Councillor Diane Williamson, Crompton Ward, who will second the motion said, “We cannot allow this destruction of our waterways in pursuit of profit to continue. There should be no rewards for failure. These companies must pay to put right the mess they have made through a proper Sewage Tax.”
Data on sewage dumping in Oldham can be found here.
Liberal Democrat Group Motion: Raw sewage discharges
Proposed by: councillor Sam Al-Hamdani
Seconded by: councillor Diane Williamson
This council notes that:
In 2011, the Environment Agency reported that our rivers were cleaner than at any time since the Industrial Revolution.
In March this year the same agency noted that there were more than 300,000 raw sewage discharges into rivers and coastal areas in 2022, lasting for more than 1.75 million hours.
In the same period our local water company, ‘United Utilities’, was responsible for 69,245 of those sewage discharges lasting for 425,491 hours.
In Oldham alone, raw sewage has been discharged into our waterways more than 2,500times since 2021, lasting for more than 14,000 hours.
These hours of raw sewage went into the waterways alongside which Oldham residents walk, cycle and ride; and in which families go boating, fishing and paddling.
Raw sewage in open waters has been shown to increase the risk of diseases such as hepatitis and Weil’s disease.
The deterioration in the quality of our water is so apparent that it is evidenced not only by Environment Agency data but by the observations of Oldham residents who have noted the rise in unpleasant odours and visible pollution in the water.
The sewage discharge data, provided by the water companies themselves, demonstrates that not a single discharge in 2022 resulted from exceptional circumstances – rainfall or storms – but due to a lack of treatment and investment by the same water companies.
Yet since 1989, they have paid out £72 billion in dividends to shareholders and bonuses of millions of pounds to executives while accruing industry wide debts of £60 billion and inflicting a 40% real terms price increase on ordinary people. So much value has been extracted from the sector that one of the largest companies is currently failing under its huge level of debt and there are forecasts of future huge price rises across the country, including Trafford, to make up for decades of lack of investment.
This situation is unfair and unsustainable – ordinary people are paying ever higher prices for the privilege of having raw human sewage dumped in their communities while the industry is allowed to be run for the enrichment of shareholders and executives.
This council resolves to:
Call upon Central Government to firmly establish the ‘Polluter Pays Principle’ across the industry. Water companies must operate in the interests of the Public, not shareholders. They must make meaningful provision for the monitoring of water quality, publish a strategy with targets for the reduction of sewage discharges, including meaningful economic impact assessments, and provide for financial penalties in relation to sewage discharges and breaches of monitoring requirements.