Calls for action over Thames Water
A campaign group want something done over pollution in Oxfordshire rivers.
There's a call for stronger action to tackle river pollution, with an organisation saying new Ofwat measures are inadequate.
Oxford Friends of the Earth have written to Steve Reed, the new Secretary of State at Defra, urging him to act decisively to resolve the current problems with Thames Water.
They say it's causing disastrous pollution in Oxfordshire’s rivers, and they have also written to all the Oxfordshire MPs.
It follows a recent move by Ofwat to impose a “turnaround oversight regime” on Thames Water, and to ensure that the provider publishes a clear “financial resilience plan”.
Oxford FoE, however, go on to say that this is an "untried mechanism, that will deliver only a short-term improvement".
The group say they want the following:
• Thames Water to be put in Special Administration, with a new team of Directors and ultimately new owners, with a full assessment of developing a company model that has public health as its primary goal, rather than short-term profit.
• A clear independent assessment of all sewage-treatment plants in the Thames Water region, to show the capacity of each and their history of discharges into our rivers. An understanding of this capacity will be important, if significant amounts of new housing are to be built in Oxfordshire;
• An independent and transparent, monitoring system to give real-time data on releases of sewage;
• A funded plan to deliver a time-linked programme, to reduce and ultimately end releases of raw sewage into our rivers.
Chris Church of Oxford FoE said:
“The current Ofwat plan is simply inadequate. The government needs to show leadership and take control of Thames Water.
"Without the measures we call for, we are very concerned that we will continue to see high levels of sewage in our rivers, with clear health risks for rowers, swimmers and other river users."
Meanwhile we put the calls to Thames Water and a spokesperson said: “While all storm discharges are unacceptable, the sewage system was historically designed to work in this way, to prevent sewage backing up into people’s homes.
“We know how much people enjoy and appreciate our rivers, and we are committed to seeing our waterways thrive, but we can’t do it alone. Farming, industry, road runoff, wildlife and increasingly extreme weather also play a role in river health.
"We have clear and deliverable plans to upgrade 250 of our sites across the region, to increase treatment capacity and reduce the number of storm discharges. This includes our Witney and Oxford sewage treatment works.
“As infrastructure ages and demand on it increases more investment is needed across the entire sector. That’s why we’ve asked for increased investment in the next regulatory cycle between 2025-2030.
"We’ve put transparency at the heart of what we do, and we were the first water company to publish a real time data map on our website, which in its first year has been viewed over 350,000 times.”