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We work with partners to raise awareness of this issue and the need to reduce the pressure put on the sewerage system through the #BinIt4Beaches campaigns.īy keeping our sewers free of wet wipes and other sanitary products as well as ensuring fats, oils and grease are not poured down the sink, we can help reduce the need for CSOs. Wet wipes make up more than 90 per cent of the material causing sewers to block. Since privatisation, water and sewerage companies have improved over 7,000 overflows to secure water quality and amenity benefits Meanwhile we all have a part to play in improving how we use our sewer system.ĬSOs can discharge through misuse of the system. As a result in 2019, Ofwat introduced a package of allowances and incentives for the next five years, setting water companies the challenge of reducing pollution incidents by a third, also requiring them to invest £4.8 billion in environmental improvements. We are also working closely with Defra and Ofwat to drive further improvements. We successfully brought forward four water company prosecutions in 2019, resulting in £1,297,000 in fines. When water companies do damage the environment, whether it is through polluting our waters or breaching permit conditions, we take enforcement action against them including civil sanctions. There is still much to do to improve the quality of our water. We have already identified over 700 overflows to be investigated and 40 overflows to be improved within the period 2020-2025. This data is helping us to understand where the system is not operating as it should, so that water companies can target investigations and investment. The Environment Agency works closely with water companies to ensure that they are closely monitoring and reporting back on their discharge activity. Combined sewer overflows (CSOs) are a necessary part of the existing sewerage system, preventing sewage from flooding homes and businesses. Overflows of diluted sewage during heavy rainfall are not a sign that the system is faulty. Combined sewer overflows (CSOs) were developed as overflow valves to reduce the risk of sewage backing up during heavy rainfall.

This means that clean rainwater and waste water from toilets, bathrooms and kitchens are conveyed in the same pipe to a sewage treatment works.ĭuring heavy rainfall the capacity of these pipes can be exceeded, which means possible inundation of sewage works and the potential to back up and flood peoples’ homes, roads and open spaces, unless it is allowed to spill elsewhere. There are a number of points that are important to put this article into context.Įngland has a combined sewage system made up of hundreds of thousands of kilometres of sewers, built by the Victorians, in many urban centres. Recently we have seen prominent coverage in the Guardian which claims that untreated human waste was released into streams and rivers for more than 1.5 million hours in 2019.
