It’s time to end the Great Sewage Cover-Up
It is time for us to end the ‘Great Sewage Cover-Up’ once and for all.
For years, water bosses have pocketed massive bonuses and hiked up bills while dumping filthy sewage into our rivers, lakes, and seas, damaging the environment, destroying wildlife, and making swimmers sick.
This week, data released by the Environment Agency revealed that water companies dumped sewage 291,492 times last year, lasting for a total of nearly 1.9 million hours. One spill in the South West lasted 5,446 hours - nearly 8 months.
These numbers are shocking - it is a national scandal that should have been addressed years ago.
But these figures are covering up one very crucial thing. It is not enough to know just how long a sewage spill lasts. It is how much sewage this equates to that is important.
It’s time the true extent of the sewage crisis is revealed.
We are calling on the Government to require water companies to monitor and report the volume of sewage dumped to provide the public with a more accurate picture of the environmental damage being caused.
Please watch and share this video from Tim Farron MP explaining why this is so important:
Enough is enough. Water companies are continuing to act with impunity, treating our waterways like open sewers. The Conservatives let them get away with it and wanted taxpayers to pay to fix the problem. Now, Labour is failing to deliver on their promise to end this scandal.
Nearly a year ago, we were promised a powerful new regulator to replace Ofwat.
This is yet to materialise, and water bosses are still pocketing millions while infrastructure crumbles and nearly two million hours of sewage has been dumped into our waterways in a single year.
We need a radical overhaul. The Liberal Democrats have long spearheaded the campaign to protect our rivers and beaches, and we will continue to fight for fundamental reform of how our water companies are regulated and run, and ensure that the public have the full facts of this crisis.
If you feel as passionately about this as we do - please back our campaign to stop sewage dumping, and to end the Great Sewage Cover-Up.