Victorians not to blame for present water woes, report reveals
Government and industry claims that the UK’s problems with sewage leaks across the country are caused by the Victorian’s legacy in the water network have been challenged in a new report from anti-pollution campaigners.
Windrush Against Sewage Pollution (WASP), with the support of data analysed by consultancy group Arup, has revealed new findings that show only 12 per cent of the sewage network in England and Wales was built in the 19th century.
Instead, the majority of the network was built in the years before privatisation, with approximately a fifth constructed during the 1960s and 1970s.
When unveiling the turnaround plan for the water industry in April earlier this year, environment secretary Therese Coffey argued that “sewage overflows stem from our principally Victorian infrastructure”.
However, Professor Peter Hammond, data researcher for WASP and former professor of computational biology at University College London, argued the new findings debunk claims issues with outflows of raw effluent and storm water are a result of antiquated Victorian infrastructure.
“For overflows on sewage networks, there appears to be no obvious correlation between average spill rate and the proportion of Victorian sewers,” he said in the report.
Hammond, who has appeared in multiple parliamentary committee hearings concerning the water industry, concluded from the data that “Victorian sewer networks are not more likely to be involved in spills of untreated sewage”.
Instead, he argued that spillages were more likely caused by a lack of maintenance and investment, especially in the context of before and after privatisation.
“Without further data, it is not possible to decide if the ‘vintage’ of sewage works and pumping stations is associated with higher levels of spilling. More likely, it is the lack of maintenance and investment that was expressed, in a broad review of infrastructure maintenance for the UK government,” he said.
Water sector under pressure on fat cat pay
The water industry was privatised without debt in 1989, with companies since then ramping up £60bn in borrowing by March 2022 and shelling out £70bn in dividends despite soaring leaks and pollution failures.
There has also been fresh scrutiny on fat cats, with the parent company of Northumbrian Water opting this week to hike the bonus of chief executive Heidi Mottram a whopping 65 per cent – climbing from £130,000 to £215,000 – with her pay totalling £781,000.
The bonus was driven by the chief executive meeting profit targets and “group distributions” — likely to be dividend payouts.
She also hit company targets for “pollution incidents”, while missing those for “discharge compliance”.
Since March 2022, Northumbrian’s owners – which include an investment firm controlled by Hong Kong billionaire Sir Li Ka-shing and American private equity giant KKR – have paid out dividends totalling £159m, according to corporate filings.
This was despite Northumbrian suffering a £50m pre-tax loss, with net debts climbing to £3.5bn in March, up from £2.8bn at the end of the previous year.
Water UK told City PM that storm overflows were occurring in the country’s older ‘combined sewers’ consisting of around 100,000km of pipelines, first designed by the Victorians, where the newest pipes were at least sixty years old – and that the report mistakenly factors in the secondary network of 450,000km of ‘separated sewers’ which are larger and newer.
A spokesperson said: “England has 100,000 kilometres of older ‘combined’ sewers with more than 15,000 storm overflows. The very newest parts of this are at least six decades old, with a large proportion dating as far back as the Victorian era.
“This is the focus of our plan, and is different to the more modern ‘separated’ sewer network, which was built in recent decades and does not spill sewage into rivers from overflows.
“Companies have acknowledged that they haven’t done enough to upgrade this part of the network but are proposing to spend more than £10bn to put it right.”
When approached for comment, a spokesperson for the department for environment, food and rural affairs said: “We have launched the most ambitious plan to reduce sewage discharges in water company history. This includes the largest infrastructure programme in water company history – £56bn capital investment over 25 years will be invested to help tackle pollution while increasing our water resilience.
“We are clear that water companies must deliver more and better for the environment and their customers. That is why our Plan for Water sets out increased investment, tougher enforcement and tighter regulation to tackle every source of river and sea pollution.”
Northumbrian Water declined to comment.
Ofwat has been approached for comment.