UK health body calls for upgrade to sewage system as beaches close

The UK’s public health body warned of the risk of illness to swimmers after water companies dumped sewage and waste water into the sea this week.

Dozens of beaches around England and Wales were closed due to sewage and stormwater outflows into coastal waters after storms and rain brought flash floods to the south of the country. Some effluent releases by water companies have not been accompanied by pollution warnings.

“It harms the economy, it harms ecosystems, it harms health,” said Jim McManus, president of the UK’s Association of Directors of Public Health, on BBC Radio Four’s Today programme on Friday. “We need a sewage system fit for the 21st century that stops discharging sewage wherever possible.”

McManus warned of stomach, chest, ear, eye infections, e-coli, salmonella and even hepatitis A being contracted through contact with dirty water. “There are health impacts being seen and sometimes you see GPs reporting on those every year,” he said, adding that household chemicals also find their way into waste water.

“We made massive strides in life expectancy because of sewage, because of food safety . . . and here we are talking about the harms from sewage 175 years after my first predecessor tried to stop it,” he added.

The comments will add to pressure on the water monopolies and their regulators in England and Wales this summer, which have been heavily criticised for awarding lucrative pay packages and dividends to chief executives and investors while announcing hosepipe bans for households and presiding over leakage and pollution failures.

Earlier this week, Southern Water was attacked for telling swimmers to “use your judgment” on whether to swim in water affected by a release of sewage.

Katy Taylor, chief customer officer of Southern Water, told the ITV show Good Morning: “We’re not saying to customers: ‘Don’t swim or don’t go in at all’. We’re saying: ‘There has been a release, this is how long that release has been. It rained, so it’s 95 per cent rainwater, you then need to use your judgment on whether you feel it’s safe to go swimming or not’.”

Current regulations allow water companies to discharge a certain amount of wastewater and untreated sewage into the sea via combined sewage overflows, which hold effluent along with excess rainwater.

However, the Environment Agency is investigating evidence from citizen scientists, including the Windrush Against Sewage campaign group, that companies are breaching their permits. Water companies have since 2009 been responsible for reporting their own storm outflows, however, not all pipes are monitored.

Southern Water and South West Water are among the poorest performers on pollution, according to the Environment Agency. Both companies have warned of sewage outflows into popular seaside resorts along the coastline this week.

Southern Water, which serves nearly 5mn people in Kent, Sussex, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, was last year fined a record £90mn after pleading guilty to thousands of pollution discharges in the five years to 2015.

McManus called for one regulator instead of numerous different watchdogs for different parts of the system, which he said did not “make for good co-ordination”. He also urged investment in sewage treatment facilities and tougher penalties to stop water companies acting illegally.

Wales became the ninth region in the UK to move into drought on Friday. Natural Resources Wales said the region had received 65.5 per cent of its average rainfall for July, putting a strain on public water supplies in Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire.