A report published today by the Environment Agency (EA) has revealed that serious pollution incidents by water companies, which are the incidents that have the biggest impacts on the environment, have increased by an unacceptable 60%.
It also revealed that total pollution incidents across English water companies have increased by 29%, which is the third consecutive annual increase across the board. With all but one water company (South West Water – but we’ll come back to them) increasing their incidents, it’s yet another spotlight on the systemic failings of the industry.
In this year’s Water Quality Report, SAS used FOI’ed data to reveal for the first time, that there had been a total of 2487 total pollution incidents across the board in 2024. Today, the EA have actually revealed that the situation is far worse than we thought, with the total incidents increasing by an additional 314.
What the EA expected between 2020 to 2025:
- A trend to minimise all pollution incidents by 2025 – there should be at least a 40% reduction compared to numbers of incidents recorded in 2016.
- Serious pollution incidents must trend towards zero.
What the EA actually got:
- Unacceptably high numbers of all pollution incidents throughout – In 2024 it was 47% higher than 2016. In the last year alone, all pollution incidents have increased by 29% – water companies recorded 2,801 incidents, which is up from 2,174 reported in 2023.
- Unacceptably high numbers of serious pollution incidents throughout – in 2024 it was 32% higher than 2016. In the last year, serious pollution incidents have gone up by 60%. 81% of these serious incidents where from just three water companies (Thames Water, Southern Water and Yorkshire Water).
South West Water (SWW) were of course very quick to share their big news that they have reduced pollution incidents, but if you dig into the latest EA report details, it’s not at all positive. What SWW fails to highlight is that they ranked number one in another category, with the highest incidents per 10,000km of sewer (with 108 incidents) and the EA states that their numbers still remain way too high. So well done for giving yourself a pat on the back SWW, but try harder.
The report continues to raise concerns about water companies failing to meet expectations set out by regulators, but this is nothing new. In SAS’s Water Quality Report published earlier this year, we already flagged missed targets across the board, only now its been confirmed by the regulator. This is not a shock, this is not groundbreaking, this is the well-known crumbling water industry that needs a radical reform urgently.
The EA has also revealed that there has been a disappointing amount of non-compliance with regulation, with 24% of sites breaching their permits. With inspections on the increase as well, we hope this is a glimpse into the future of an empowered regulator who will stand up to punish the water companies when they fall painfully short. But the proof will be in the consequences.
Missed targets, broken permits, increased pollution, lack of maintenance and underinvestment is a tale as old as Victorian infrastructure. But this is an all round monumental joint effort from the water companies to make our job a little bit easier and show everyone, once again, just how broken this industry is.
We made a case for the need of a root and branch transformational reform and the EA has underlined it and highlighted it in bold for us.
With the final report by the Independent Water Commission due to be released very soon, we are URGING the Government to ensure that cleaning up our waterways remains a priority. For people AND the planet.
Because this, is not acceptable.
Read our joint open letter to Keir Starmer and Steve Reed and share online!
