A pleasure boat operator says he fears for the future of his cruises due to silt and other issues on the River Severn in Shrewsbury. Dilwyn Jones said flooding and other environmental factors were making life on the river harder. “We need to take action fairly soon otherwise it won’t be navigable,” he said. Maintaining the river channel would have […]

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) isn’t having it: An ad campaign by Anglian Water extolling how it cleans water by creating wildlife-friendly wetlands has been banned for not telling consumers about its history of releasing sewage into the environment. Last month, Anglian Water pleaded guilty to allowing millions of litres of untreated sewage to overflow from a water recycling centre […]

The Guardian has reported that the storm overflows taskforce is not meeting as often as it’s supposed to. Not even close: The storm overflows taskforce set up by the government to tackle raw sewage discharges by water companies in England has only met once in the last year, a freedom of information request has revealed. […] Its terms of reference […]

The River Wye’s health status has been downgraded by Natural England, as wildlife charities accuse the government of failing to stop farming pollution harming the waterway. The government nature watchdog has updated the status of the river from “unfavourable-improving” to “unfavourable-declining”, meaning its condition is poor – and worsening. The assessment shows the river, which flows for 155 miles from […]

In a story entitled ‘Why is raw sewage pumped into rivers and the sea?’, the BBC lays bare the situation, as reflected in published Environment Agency data. In 2022, raw sewage was pumped into rivers and seas for 1.75 million hours last year – on average 825 times per day. This is down 19% on the 2021 figures, because of […]

Press release (or apology, if you like) here. Defra has covered the story thusly: Water UK has apologised for not acting quickly enough on sewage spills and vowed to ‘put things right’, starting with a £10 billion investment. […] Water Minister Rebecca Pow said: This apology by the water industry is not before time and I welcome it. […] Alan […]

A fishing competition could be called off as anglers were hooking more sanitary products than fish, an organiser said. […] Andy Jones, from Shrewsbury Town Fisheries, said it could be cancelled this year as anglers were hooking more sanitary products and wet wipes than fish. Recent Environment Agency (EA) data showed water companies discharged sewage into rivers for 1.8m hours […]

Keir Starmer has accused the government of “turning Britain’s waterways into an open sewer”, as data showed raw discharges were sent into English rivers 825 times a day last year. Private water companies have been consistently accused of failing to take action, and the Environment Agency admitted there were more than 300,000 spillages into rivers and coastal areas in 2022, […]

Water companies released raw sewage into rivers and seas in England for more than 1.75 million hours last year. […] Water UK, which represents the water industry, told the BBC that this is the fourth year spill figures have come down and “companies are committed to building on this positive news”. Again, and amazingly, not a parody. The Environment Agency […]

A number of campaigners are refusing to pay part of their water bills in protest at the amount of sewage being discharged into the River Severn. In all, combined sewage overflows discharged into the river for almost 29,000 hours in 2021. It has left many residents along the Severn angry and some in Shropshire said they would not be paying […]