The Financial Times: Victorian sewers not to blame for England’s pollution, research shows
“Water company excuses for spills debunked by findings that most infrastructure was built in 20th century.
Less than 12 per cent of the sewage network in England and Wales was built in the 19th century, undermining water industry claims that outflows of raw effluent and storm water are a result of antiquated Victorian infrastructure.
The majority of the network was instead built in the years before privatisation, with approximately a fifth constructed during the 1960s and 1970s, according to data analysed by consultancy Arup and campaigners Windrush Against Sewage Pollution.
Professor Peter Hammond, data researcher for Wasp and former professor of computational biology at University College London, said the findings debunked the argument from water companies and government that sewage outflows could be blamed on the Victorian waste water networks.
“Victorian sewers constitute a minor proportion of the sewer network and cannot be blamed for the toxic mix of untreated human waste and road surface run-off polluting our inland and coastal waters,” said Hammond, who has appeared at several parliamentary hearings on water.
“The disparity of infrastructure investment before and since privatisation must surely bear the brunt of blame,” he added.
The analysis contradicts the argument often made by the water industry and government that the privatised water companies are releasing raw sewage into coastal waters and rivers partly as a result of having inherited infrastructure that was built in the Victorian era, which ended in 1901.
As recently as April Thérèse Coffey, the secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs, said: “Sewage overflows stem from our principally Victorian infrastructure”.
In July 2023 Water UK, the trade association, said: “The industry is strongly committed to accelerating the pace of improvement, including with a £10bn overhaul of our Victorian sewage system to transform our rivers and seas.”
However, Hammond’s analysis found no evidence to suggest that Victorian sewer networks were more likely to be involved in spills of untreated sewage. “More likely it is the lack of maintenance and investment,” he said.”
The quantity of raw sewage flowing into rivers and coastal waters remains unknown. Although the government has required that all combined sewer overflows have monitors installed to record discharges by the end of this year, they record only when they occur and not the volume released.
