Over £180m of investment fast-tracked to prevent sewage spills

Monday, 11 March 2024 00:01

Thousands of spills to be prevented by increased investment this year Water companies commit to speed up funding to cut spills and hit targets Latest in government action to hold companies accountable and improve the water environment Fast-tracked investment of £180m over the next 12 months is expected to prevent more than 8000 sewage spills polluting English waterways, the Environment Secretary announced today...Request free trial

Thousands of spills to be prevented by increased investment this year

Water companies commit to speed up funding to cut spills and hit targets

Latest in government action to hold companies accountable and improve the water environment

Fast-tracked investment of £180m over the next 12 months is expected to prevent more than 8000 sewage spills polluting English waterways, the Environment Secretary announced today (Monday 11^th March).

Examples of measures include investment in AI systems to help manage storm loads, the installation of thousands of new in-sewer monitors to check flows and spot blockages early, the recruitment and training of specialist staff, and accelerated wetland construction programmes.

These new funding commitments are in addition to water companies’ existing £3.1 billion investment into storm overflow improvements for this price review period (2020-2025), as well as their ongoing annual investment to maintain the performance of the existing network.

The accelerated improvements, which will be delivered by April 2025, support the targets under the government’s Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan. This is driving the largest infrastructure investment in water company history, estimated at £60 billion over the next 25 years.

It follows the Secretary of State directing water and sewage companies last December to measurably reduce sewage spills over the next year by accelerating commitments and delivering new funding.

It also follows the recent ban on bonuses for water company executives where firms have committed serious criminal breaches, subject to Ofwat consultation, and the quadrupling of the Environment Agency’s regulatory capacity, enabling them to carry out 4,000 water company inspections by the end of the next financial year.

Environment Secretary Steve Barclay said:

“The amount of sewage being spilled into our rivers is completely unacceptable and the public rightly expects action. This £180 million of accelerated investment, which will stop more than 8,000 sewage spills over the next year, is a welcome step forward as we continue to push for better performance from water companies and hold them to account.

“This money will mean more cutting-edge technology, including artificial intelligence, and more specialist staff to detect and reduce spills.

“Today’s announcement builds on significant work by this government to protect and strengthen our waters with increased investment, stronger regulation and tougher enforcement action.”

ENDS

COMPANY	NEW FUNDING (£m)	EXPECTED OUTCOMES
Anglian	£50m	The new funding will support Anglian's commitment to having less than 20 spills per overflow by 2025, in line with their Get River Positive commitments and Ofwat Performance Commitments. It will deliver:8000 additional sewer monitors to check flows and spot blockages early (building on the 22,000 new monitors already being installed) Additional planned preventative maintenance in 100 catchments using insights from the new sewer monitorsAdditional teams across the East of England focussed on early response to spills to further reduce their duration and frequencyCompleting a second ecological digital twin for the River Wensum in Norfolk to take a catchment-based partnership approach to spill reduction
Severn Trent	£41m	The new funding commitment will deliver an estimated 2500 fewer spills and will enable the following:Recruitment of staff and improving equipment in waste network teamsInstalling EDM dual monitors to provide a back-up data sourceDoubling the number of Network TechniciansInvesting in a new AI solution to manage storm load by automatically adjusting water levels in storage tanksAsset improvement ‘quick wins’
Southern	£10m	The new funding commitment will deliver an estimated 120 fewer spills from storm overflows and will enable the following:Expansion of optimisation activityA real-time digital wastewater catchment controlAn additional surface water pathfinder catchmentAn additional programme of ground water infiltration reduction of both customer and public sewersAn accelerated construction programme for wetlands benefitting Chichester Harbour
South West	£32m	The new funding commitment will deliver an estimated 4000 fewer spills from storm overflows and will enable the following:Significantly increasing Sewer Level Monitors by 31 March 2025Increasing sewer network cleansing in 2024 (already doubled in 2023)Increasing structural defect repairs from 55 to 85 per month (Jan to June 2024)Doubling installation of power relays at pumping stationsDiverting groundwater at 30 key WwTW (£25m)Doubling WwTW generator services (Jan to April 2024)Enhanced inspections at all WwTWIncreasing storm storage by adding over 6,000m3 additional capacity to the network
United Utilities	£39m	The new funding commitment will deliver an estimated 1700 fewer spills from storm overflows and will enable the following:AI analysis of networks to direct proactive maintenanceFollowing pilot this year, deploying interim solutions at 29 sitesRainwater separation, including industrial sized smart butts at schools
Wessex	£8m	The new funding commitment will deliver an estimated 200 fewer spills from storm overflows and will enable the following:Further 3500 sewer depth monitorsNew smart network for sewer managementInfiltration reduction
Totals	£180m

Some companies have already announced that they are taking forward additional investment to tackle storm overflows this year and are therefore not included in the overall investment figure. This includes Northumbrian investing an additional £29.8m this year to accelerate their spill reduction programme, and Yorkshire Water investing an additional £99m.