Almost 1,200 sewage overflow pipes discharged into England and Wales’ most sensitive wildlife habitats – including the Isle of Wight – for over 300,000 hours last year, new data has revealed.
In the South, the Solent and Dorset coast Special Protection Area (SPA) – which covers parts of Sussex, the Isle of Wight and Dorset – received more than 14,000 hours of spills last year despite the fact that they are supposed to be officially protected under conservation rules.
The research, conducted by Greenpeace, showed that the Isle of Wight alone endured 3,459.1 hours from 461 spills in 2022.
The photograph above was taken on 30th March 2023 and shows a Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) pipe on Ryde Beach which has suffered from sewage pollution in recent years. This has been caused by using a CSO that combines both waste from homes and businesses with surface water from roofs and gutters resulting in waste ending up on the beaches.
British sewage systems, which date back to the Victorian era, are designed to discharge surpluses into the sea in the event of heavy rain, to avoid clogging of pipes in homes. But the water companies are accused of discharging wastewater regularly, even in the midst of drought, and of not having invested in adapting their network to the growth of the population.
As a result, last Summer, many beaches had to close in the middle of a heat wave for days because the seawater contained too many bacteria.
Nationally, the analysis found that:
- 1,193 raw sewage overflows discharge within 50m of a protected area;
- 305,963 hours of raw sewage spilled in protected areas;
- The total number of protected areas affected was 515
Megan Corton Scott, Political Campaigner for Greenpeace UK, said:
“These are the casualty figures from a war which nature is losing, badly. Private water companies treat our countryside as a toilet, and their vandalism doesn’t stop at some of our most sensitive conservation areas. Beloved lakes, beaches and rivers, rare wildlife habitats, sites of special scientific interest are being sacrificed so water company bosses and shareholders can continue to reap huge profits.”
“The idea that the sewage industry could be shamed into doing the right thing has been tried and failed – nothing matters to them except profit. The only way to force them to clear up their mess is to make all of their dividends and bonuses dependent on actual results. Instead of long-term targets and empty threats, ministers should actually force the water companies to do the job we pay them for, starting now.”
Further details from the study, including the full data for the investigation can be found here.
Every single time it rains on IOW sewage is discharged into the sea from the many overflow pipes in East Wight – Appley, Seaview, Lifeboat station Bembridge, Whitecliff Bay, etc. Let’s hope the IOW Council will stand up to Planning Officers and Developers and say ‘no’ to large scale housing developments until water companies make inroads into improving this situation. We gained UNESCO Biosphere status in 2019 – and the IOW Council have just adopted ‘Motion for the Ocean’ – but as we all know, ‘actions speak louder than words’
take action google “boycott water bills .com ” it is the only way southern water will listen you are paying for a service not received
‘motion for the ocean’ aka flushing the toilet, never a truer statement.
Seems like Ryde has the worse of it, and the smell at times would seem to confirm this. And guess where most of the new houses are being built. Thick council strikes again.
So this article mentions the ‘growth of the population’ but the real British people were having an average of 2.4 children, yet since the unorganic growth from the delights from overseas, who ironically have bred their lands to over capacity, now will do the same damage here.
It would have made more economic and green sense to have invested in hi tech for jobs that can be done by such, and cut tax credits unless you work minimum of 35 hours a week, not the mere 16 which ‘alleged’ single parents need to do, to claim the max.
Now we have to build homes for millions more, and treat or swim in their effluent.
I’d like to say that water is the only thing that can’t be cut off if you don’t pay your bill.
Just putting that out there if you want to protest.
Thank you Terry for the info, BUT being a true Islander, I will just moan on here, hope ‘others’ protest and don’t pay their bills, but I don’t want the agro of it all.
So, likely nothing will change or happen as I am sure most on here will pay lip service only to a thumb up for a no pay protest.
That’s why petty racists like like you will never achieve anything.
Because you won’t put your balls on the line.
That is so typical of the British. In France there would have been huge demonstrations & directors of the water companies forced out of office.
If I could I would be living in France or Spain but due to the stupidity of Brexit this is impossible.
No but it can be reduced to a trickle I believe.
What a stupid response. I suppose the immigrants are to blame. The greed of privatised companies & their shareholders are to blame. I suppose you realise that tax payers subsidise privatised rail companies so we are paying for their profits. I suggest you stop reading the Mail & Express. The only solution is to penalise the directors heavily with penal sentences & renationalisation of the utilities.
We are paying extra to the water company to remove ALL waste water and have this treated , but the water companys are paying out high cost dividends to the share holders, we need better inferstructure and not given to the shareholders ,
All servces this includes the water companies should be upgraded before any further planning permision is now granted ,I.O.W council would certainly object to this method. as a loss of revenue .
You can thank for the Tories for this, sold everything to foreign companies so they can dish out tax cuts. Now we no longer have control of our essential infrastructure.
Isle of Shite never more apt