Thames21’s reaction to Water UK’s water investment announcement
We welcome the news that water companies in England have promised to spend £10bn by 2030 on reducing storm overflow spills. Along with other river trusts and campaigners, Thames21 have advocated for this for many years. In fact it should have been done a long time ago and we now hope to see swift action.
However, their plan to build new storm tanks, that will store a mixture of sewage and rainwater runoff from streets and housing, only provides an ‘end-of-pipe’ solution. It does not prevent rainwater from overloading the sewer network in the first place. The climate emergency, continued development, and degradation of water company assets will overload these structures in time. Water companies must tackle the problem at source.
See Guardian story about Water UK’s announcement below.