Sewage spills in Gloucestershire

It's not just that sewage floating round in our watercourses and seas is an unpleasant thought - or worse, if you like wild swimming or swim from the beach near an outflow. That's bad enough.

Worse news is that the high levels of phosphorus and nitrogen from the untreated sewage, and even small amounts in treated sewage is really BAD for the ecosytems upon which plants and wildlife depend.

Heard of 'eutrification'? That's the technical term for what happens when water in our rivers and streams gets overloaded with nutrients like phosphorus and nitrogen, readily found in raw sewage, which encourages the growth of algae and plankton to the detriment of other plants and wildlife. Run off from agricultural fields is also a factor in rivers such as the Wye, where farmers have overloaded their fields with manure from nearby intensive chicken farms/factories. It;s a very sad picture.

So why are we hearing about more and more sewage spills?

That is partly because the UK's population has grown so much.

That has put greater pressure on infrastructure that was not matched by sensible investment. It is also partly because of an increased incidence of extreme weather incidents, such as sudden heavy downpours, as well as droughts that hardened the ground.

An additional factor behind increased spills is that so many Britons have concreted over their gardens. That latter factor, as with droughts, has left more water flowing off hard surfaces and into sewers during times of heavy rain rather than being absorbed into the ground. Rain garden, anyone? https://www.rhs.org.uk/garden-features/rain-gardens

And, as all that happened, spills became more of an issue.

It will take different government to address what has become a national scandal. When Margaret Thatcher privatised the water companies, the thinking was that investment would be drawn in to rebuild the infrastructure but the profits have not all been channelled into the way it was hoped. Bills have been kept low, shareholders have received their dividends and bosses are paid fat salaries. When water was nationalised, the situation was not perfect either so now the question is - how do we begin to solve this extremely urgent problem? Answers on a postcard ....