Water supply manager convicted over Thames sewage scandal
Hames Water faced a wave of condemnation from weary London MPs as the House of Commons debated plans by the utility to discharge millions of liters of treated wastewater on Wednesday.
The plan involves pumping filtered wastewater into the river at Teddington, which the company says is needed as part of a program of works to ensure “a safe and sustainable water supply for the future”.
It comes after Labor and the Liberal Democrats called on Tuesday for an immediate investigation into reports that three major water companies, including Thames, illegally discharged wastewater hundreds of times last year, even during dry spells.
Rishi Sunak’s spokesman described the findings of a BBC investigation as “completely unacceptable”. However, he stressed that the government intends to strengthen the powers of industry regulator Ofwat and the Environment Agency to prosecute polluters.
More than 24,000 people have signed a petition against the project, which is awaiting the government’s green light.
Opponents say that as global temperatures continue to rise, Thames Water could do much more to fix its leaky pipes than endanger the environment with new work.
“Thames Water has categorically failed millions of residents across our area,” Munira Wilson, the Liberal Democrat MP for Twickenham, told the Standard before chairing a Westminster Hall debate on the Teddington project.
“What’s worse is that this Conservative government is simply so weak and out of touch that Thames Water has been able to get away with this scandalous behavior for far too long,” she added.
Thames Water stressed that it needed to invest in new water sources to ensure a safe and sustainable supply for the future.
A spokesman added: “Our work to date shows that the proposed extraction system in west London is a cost-effective option and our environmental studies have shown that the system would not cause harm to the environment.”
“The program will provide up to 75 million liters per day as a drought resilience programme. It would only be used during periods of prolonged drought.”
The role of Ofwat is also coming under increasing scrutiny.
Gareth Thomas, the Labor MP for Harrow West, has written to the regulator demanding answers as he pushes for Thames Water to be held accountable to both its 15 million customers and the region’s elected representatives .
“Ofwat has treated Thames Water like a favorite child for too long, allowing excessive borrowing to fund dividends for its owners and shocking salaries and bonuses for its senior staff,” Thomas said.
“I fear Ofwat will once again turn a blind eye to Thames’ many failings and allow the company to use water bills to repair its balance sheet in the coming years.”
An Ofwat spokesman responded: “Thames Water needs to develop a robust and credible plan to transform the business and improve its performance for customers and the environment. We will continue to protect the interests of customers.”
Thames Water insists it has not paid dividends to external shareholders since 2017. Its accounts show £37m of internal payments to the parent company in 2021-2022 to service its £14bn of debt.
Stressed by the impact of rising interest rates on debt, the board was forced to seek a further £750m of emergency funding in July, after attracting investors for £1bn last year.
The announcement sparked speculation that the government needed to mount a bailout and came shortly after the sudden resignation of CEO Sarah Bentley. The company is now under interim management while the search for her successor continues.
According to Philip Dunne, the Conservative chairman of the Commons Environmental Audit Committee, the capital injection has bought Thames Water time.
“But the fundamental problems they are struggling with, similar to many other water utilities in terms of wastewater disposal, namely the broken infrastructure, still need to be resolved,” he told the Standard.
However, Mr Dunne said Londoners should recognize the benefits of the Tideway Tunnel’s “super sewer”, which promises to divert 37 million tonnes of wastewater from the river every year when it becomes operational in 2025.
In July, Thames Water was fined £3.3 million for pumping “millions of liters” of undiluted sewage into rivers near Gatwick in 2017, killing several thousand fish. Pollution-related prosecutions by the Environment Agency have resulted in £35.7m in fines for the company since 2017.
The company insists it is getting the leaks under control. And interim co-chief executive Alastair Cochran told MPs in July that the utility’s acting leadership was “very focused” on a recovery for the business.
He said: “Our collective task is to get this business back under control.”
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/thames-water-rishi-sunak-ofwat-munira-wilson-gareth-thomas-philip-dunne-b1105179.html Water supply manager convicted over Thames sewage scandal
