Greens challenge profiteering in the water industry as the Independent Water Commission releases its report
In 2024, Anglian Water had the second highest number (482) of pollution incidents, after Thames Water (523), in England. This was one of the many shocking statistics in the Environment Agency (EA)’s pollution incident report for 2016-20241, published last week (Friday 18th July).
Green County Cllr Elliot Tong says ‘Since Labour took control of national government in July last year, we have seen no improvement in the state of our rivers. In fact, according to the Environment Agency, they have only gotten worse. Labour’s weak approach to disciplining the water companies will not deal with the problem that our country faces, allowing groups like Anglian Water to continue to pollute the River Cam.’
The EA report shows that seven of England’s nine water companies had deteriorated between 2016 and 2024, including Anglian Water (104% deterioration). Most serious pollution incidents are from foul sewers, sewage treatment works and rising mains. In Cambridge, efforts by local swimmers and environmentalists over the last two years have already demonstrated the shocking state of the Cam and identified the Haslingfield sewage treatment plant as one of the sources: in 2023 this small plant spilled sewage for 3000 hours – equivalent to 34% of the whole year2.
Similarly, careless management of water pipes and poor asset maintenance by Cambridge Water, which supplies our tap water, has led to leakages which contribute to the predicted deficit in our supply in less than 10 years’ time. The water company is now rushing to renew over 250km of pipes across its supply region.
The release of the report of the Independent Water Commission today confirms the urgent need for an overhaul of the industry. However, it does not go far enough.
Cllr Tong says: ‘Currently, your water bill is getting more and more expensive so that executives can get paid exorbitant wages and shareholders receive vast dividends, while our infrastructure suffers. The Cambridge Greens will never support any measure that will allow either Anglian Water or Cambridge Water to profit from their negligence. The option of public ownership was excluded from the new report, but that’s the only real way to get the industry to clean up its act, and invest in ending sewage dumping and fixing leaks. We also need to take a much more critical view of water consumption, particularly in relation to the rush to develop even more water-guzzling technology and AI industries in Cambridge.’