Water companies Archives - Action on Climate Emergency (ACE)

Thousands expected to take to the streets on Saturday

Barry White

A major climate coalition is set to stage protests across Britain and Ireland this weekend. The Climate Justice Coalition, which organised the biggest climate march in British history last year, has called the demonstration on Saturday 12 November, to oppose the UK government’s ‘climate-wrecking plans’. The alliance, formerly the Cop26 Coalition, expects thousands of people to march in the streets on the day to demand climate justice in support of a global day of action called for by Egyptian groups at Cop27.

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Waters most foul

Barry White

As George Eustice the environment secretary announced at the end of last week that water companies would have to invest £56bn over 25 years in a long term programme to tackle storm sewage discharges, the Yorkshire Post (https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/environment/sewage-spilled-into-yorkshires-waterways-for-15-million-hours-over-last-six-years-figures-show-3821116) reported that sewage had been allowed into Yorkshire waterways for more than 1.5m hours over the last six years. Yorkshire Water recorded 1669,575 spillage incidents between 2016 and 2021 which equated to one incident every 18 minutes according to figures obtained by the Labour Party.

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Water, water everywhere (else)…

Barry White

The Guardian reports (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/aug/19/water-firms-england-wales-litres-leaky-pipes-ofwat ) that the water and financial regulator Ofwat says water companies lost an average of 2,923.8m litres of water a day in 2021-22 due to leaky pipes equating to more than 1tn litres. Although Ofwat said the figures remained provisional until it has completed validation checks, they amount to the equivalent of 426,875 Olympic swimming pools or more than three and a half Lake Windermeres!

Thames Water leaked the largest volumes, according to the industry body Water UK, losing 217bn litres of water over the year – last week, the company announced it would introduce a hosepipe ban from 24 August, affecting 15 million customers. Severn Trent Water followed close behind with 161bn litres leaked over the year, United Utilities with 151bn litres leaked, Yorkshire Water with 103bn litres and Northumbrian Water with 69bn litres lost.

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Yorkshire Water fined £1.6m for sewage pollution

SHP Safety & Health Practitioner 25 July 2022

Yorkshire Water has been fined £1,600,750 for polluting a Bradford watercourse in a prosecution brought by the Environment Agency. It was also ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £170 and £22,112.79 in costs. The company appeared at Leeds Magistrates’ Court for sentence on Monday, 18 July, where it pleaded guilty to unauthorised sewage discharges into Bradford Beck, and breaches of its environmental permit. The court heard its George Street detention tank in Bradford was full for up to eight months during 2018, leading to 25 unauthorised sewage spills into Bradford Beck.

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