Pollution issues

It’s refreshing though to fish the crystal clear waters of the Avon or Stour I wonder how much longer this might be the case. I’m no expert however with the water companies allowed to release untreated sewage into rivers at permissive levels and frequency cannot be helping particularly with low flow levels during summer levels. Few at Government level though will take on the large water companies and take them to task. I’m afraid it’s all about profit and shareholder dividends with the water companies. Interestingly £6.5 billion has been given to shareholders in dividends between the years of 2013-17 and a total of £56 billion since privatisation in 1989. The last 10 years England has seen dividends of some £13.4billion paid to investors in the water companies. Scottish Water which is publically owned has invested 35% more in infrastructure than England’s private ownership in comparison.

I’ve recently read that there have been 400k extra sewage spills in 2020 from our caring water companies. That’s almost 1100 per day somewhere in England. OFWAT are paying lip service to the true fundamental reason for it’s existence that is for encouraging competition and adequate investment in the industry and administrating and enforcing the licencing regime for water and sewage companies. OFWAT is not responsible for water quality or on environmental issues. These belong to the Environment Agency, The Drinking Water Inspectorate and English Nature. So what are these organisations doing in enforcing an improvement or taking the water companies to task in these 400k incidences.

OFWAT are part of the DEFRA department and have a Minister in charge of this.

This year Southern water were find a record £90m for knowingly discharging 6971 illegal spills of raw sewage into the sea from 17 sites in Hampshire, Kent and West Sussex between 2010 to 2015.

March 2020 Southern water admitted 51 counts of discharges of untreated sewage from it’s sites. Water companies are allowed to discharge raw sewage in times of flood water when they cannot cope. However they disregard this and discharge at low flow levels in rivers.

It would be interesting to get a true green Government take this issue up with the water companies. It’s the sly way the water companies are ignoring and flexing the regulations that I find outrageous. Perhaps help might be on the horizon in an unexpected way. The so called wild swimmers could and should be asking about water quality in rivers where they are swimming. Perhaps it will take for a good few to be poisoned before the penny drops. The public see the rivers at surface level and really have little interest in what goes on below it. We anglers are aware of what lies beneath but have little or no power or say on improving the situation. This is perhaps to do with our obsession with small commercial fisheries where the fishing can be relatively easy. Many don’t have the urge to fish running water where it can be so rewarding to catch truly wild fish. The skills and ability to fish these rivers are so much different from still waters. Of course these still waters are the starting points for many an angler on the journey of fishing and long may that continue. This is not a place to argue about commercial fisheries verse rivers and lakes each and every one of us, the angling fraternity has a choice, Don’t get me wrong here I do fish smaller commercial fisheries and enjoy the pleasure of fishing the venues. It’s just that our rivers are a life blood of other sports and recreations other than angling and need protection. Yes we can report incidents to the Environment Agency but the response is normally pathetically slow and ponderous. Often the incident has passed and normality has returned.

Yes the water companies are fined millions of pounds when pollution occurs however this is a small amount compared to how much it would cost to eradicate the issue of releasing untreated sewage. The cost would run into many billions of pounds of which the water companies prefers to give to shareholders. Although recently the penny is dropping and dividends have been suspended by some companies.

I’m sure this is not the only issue that is causing our rivers to be in decline, farming practices and a few others would fit in the equation. One which is going to rear it’s head soon is water abstraction and the short sightedness of water companies once again. Chalk streams flows are dwindling away in summer and empty of water. It’s just not these rivers but others also struggle in drought and summer conditions whist the aquifer’s are plundered for drinking water. It’s so easy to extract water from these natural underground sources serving an ever increasing population.

The last true reservoir was built 30 years ago, yes that long ago. In that time there has been an increase in population of some 11 million people in England . I understand the costs involved in building a reservoirs and the reluctance of the water companies to spend this money however we cannot keep plundering mother natures resources. I guess eventually we will be piping water from area’s of the country where rainfall is sufficient to enable others in drier area’s to flush their toilets etc. This in turn produces more sewage again for the underfunded creaking sewage systems that we currently have. Guess what more incidents of sewage spills to look forward to. Combine this with global warming and perhaps less rain here in the UK it’s not looking great for our rivers. How on earth will the water companies deal with this scenario because with rivers dwindling summer flows and increasing sewage volumes it looks a bleak outlook for what lies below the surface of rivers.

We have a very active organisation that’s the Angling Trust who if you remember were proactive in getting angling added to the permissive sports list during the pandemic. I’m a member and have been from pretty much the beginning. It’s just a pity that most anglers don’t join to give us a voice in the Government. They are searching of ways to hold the Government to account for funding and ensuring that the Environment Agency carry out fully their statutory duties in relation to the monitoring and enforcement of existing regulation designed to protect and improve our rivers , lakes and coastal waters. It’s a tall ask considering few other river users take up the issue of pollution. They may like to in the future. It’s a collaboration of such people as wild swimmers, paddle boarders, canoeists, rowers, environmental groups and of course the green party that need to press the water companies, government, OFWAT and DEFRA from the current disastrous practices of pollution. Yes there are conflicts between the various groups but until we have a common voice and theme then little will be done.

I’m betting that the Green party support will grow substantially over the next few years as we have seen in Europe. Mostly supported through the younger generation of the population. Any government ignoring this has it’s head in the sands. Environmental changes will be the top of many peoples priorities over the coming years. It will also be on many companies mission statements I’m sure. It is currently on the water companies ones but lip service is only paid.