32 leading environmental, nature, and water sports organisations, including Wildlife and Countryside Link, River Action, The Rivers Trust, Surfers Against Sewage, and the Angling Trust, have joined forces to call on the newly appointed Chair of the Government’s Water Commission Sir Jon Cunliffe to ensure that the UK’s best chance to fix its water system in a generation isn’t left circling the drain and to set out their stall on how the upcoming review can best deliver for communities, nature, and climate.
The call follows last week’s announcement from Secretary of State Steve Reed in which he appointed Sir Jon and set out more details about what the proposed comprehensive review of the water industry would contain.
Water and sewage infrastructure remains a huge issue for communities across the country, with the Environment Agency estimating that over 20% of the UK’s water supply being lost due to leaks in the system.
This year has also seen a surge in named storms, with a total of 13 so far in 2023 – 2024, compared to 7 in 2021-2022 and just 1 in 2022-2023 – putting even more pressure on the country’s infrastructure. Record-breaking rainfall in September 2024 left many communities under water and in many cases facing a flood of raw sewage in their homes.
Environment Agency Figures showed a 54% increase in the number of discharges of raw sewage into UK rivers and waterways in 2023, compared with 2022, with a total of 464,056 spills and untreated sewage discharged for a total of 3,606,170 hours through storm overflows, an average of 1271 spills a day.
The joint call comes less than a week ahead of the March for Clean Water, which will see environmental organisations, water campaigners, including Feargal Sharkey, and thousands of people from across the UK take to the streets of London to demand that the UK government take action to end the poisoning of UK rivers. The 2024 State of Our Rivers report found that no stretch of river in England or Wales was in ‘good overall health’ and only 1 in 7 rivers in England were in good ecological condition.
The coalition believes that the review presents a ‘golden opportunity’ to reset the poorly performing water sector and safeguard the country’s water infrastructure to serve customers’ best interests whilst also ensuring that nature is no longer left to deal with the fallout of frequent floods of human faeces and forever chemicals.
The group has called on Sir Jon to make sure the review delivers on the following asks:
- Reform the water sector to prevent companies from prioritising profits over public services and river health.
- Strengthen water health goals, ensuring clear and enforceable plans for cleaner rivers.
- Ensure regulators have enough funding to monitor and enforce environmental rules effectively.
- Secure more public and private funding for environmental goals, with stronger penalties for polluters and greater use of nature-based solutions.
The coalition also set out urgent actions that the government could take ahead of the review. These priority actions include the introduction of a polluter pays levy, support for water-friendly farming measures, fully funded plans for the entire catchment areas of rivers, and a requirement for regulators and companies to adopt a nature-first approach.
Richard Benwell, CEO of Wildlife and Countryside Link, said: “With a long, painful history of environmental damage by the water sector it was good news when the Government announced its review. You can’t restore nature without restoring our rivers, lakes and streams. This is a golden opportunity to deliver big changes, from new rules that make polluting big businesses pay to clean up the environment to ensuring that regulators are strong, well-funded and fit for purpose. Communities and UK wildlife are crying out for the government to deliver on its manifesto commitment to clean up England’s rivers. We look forward to working with the Water Commission and Sir Jon to make this happen.”
James Wallace, CEO of River Action UK, emphasised, “The government must seize this momentum to halt the profit-driven pollution of our waterways. We demand stringent enforcement of environmental laws, prosecution of offenders, and bolstering of regulatory oversight. This is the resounding message that thousands will convey to Keir Starmer’s government during the March for Clean Water in London on November 3rd.”
Mark Lloyd, CEO of the Rivers Trust said, “For decades our rivers have faced a death by a thousand cuts. They’re polluted with chemicals, sewage and more, put through endless cycles of extreme drought and rainfall, and subjected to far too much water being removed from them. This is leaving them devoid of wildlife and means people can’t enjoy them. But the Government Commission on the sector gives a major opportunity to put a clean and healthy water environment at the centre of a nature-positive, climate-resilient society.”
Giles Bristow CEO of Surfers Against Sewage said, “Done right, this Water Commission has the potential to deliver transformational reform of our broken water system and ensure communities across the country can enjoy all the benefits that clean rivers, lakes and seas can provide. The public shouldn’t be getting sick every time they go for a swim or surf, now it’s time for the government to deliver on their promises and End Sewage Pollution.”
