Climate change scientists have forecast warmer wetter winters, predictions that have certainly been borne out by the past year or two.  Indeed, Met Office statistics show that, from October 2022 to March this year, more rain fell on England than in any eighteen month period since records began in 1836.  

Flooding was extreme with many fields and roads under water for weeks on end.  This had a serious impact on farming with the Agricultural and Horticultural Development Board suggesting that the yields of winter wheat will be 15%, winter barley 22% and oilseed rape 28% lower than the 5-year average.  Coming on top of the reduction in subsidy and other financial constraints, there have been threats of potential food shortages.

Our watercourses were already under severe pressure from pollution and the heavy rains of winter and spring highlighted just how extreme this has become.  One problem is that much of our drainage infrastructure dates back to the Victorian era, mixing industrial and household waste with flood water and land drainage.  At times of high rainfall, treatment plants cannot cope with the sheer volume of water and untreated waste is discharge into rivers, lakes and seas.  This has become a national disgrace with more than four million hours of untreated sewage discharged in the past year, up 112% on the previous twelve months.  No wonder it featured in the General Election manifestos.

The water and sewage industry was privatised in 1989 with ‘a regulatory framework in place to ensure that consumers receive high standards of service at a fair price’.  Since then the water companies have invested £160 billion but have also paid out £80 billion in dividends to shareholders.  They plan to invest another £96 billion by the end of the decade but are demanding a massive rise in consumer bills to pay for it.  For example, Thames Water that has debts of £15.6 billion has asked the regulator to approve an increase in bills of 44%.

It is legal for raw sewage to be discharged into watercourses but only when heavy rainfall overwhelms the sewage system with the threat of waste backing up into people’s homes or bubbling up through manholes.  However, it has become increasingly evident that many discharges are happening when this is not the case and are thus illegal.  These ‘dry spills’ are especially damaging as the pollution is more concentrated without the dilution of flood water.  

And yet it is still happening, as highlighted by the Times newspaper Clean it Up and other campaigns.  The fact that iconic aquatic events such as the Boat Race and Henley Royal Regatta have been marred by warnings to oarsmen not to have direct contact with the water because of dangerous contamination by E. coli highlights how catastrophic the problem has become.  It has been suggested that water company executives should face prosecution when illegal spills take place with heavy fines or even prison sentences.  And yet they have been paid £61 million in bonuses and perks over the past decade.

The last Government claimed that watercourses have been cleaned up but only 16% are rated as in good ecological condition, the same as in 2017.  It tried to hold the water companies to account insisting that sewage discharges should be cut by 80% by 2030 but that would still allow some spillages until 2050.  This is totally unacceptable and the new Government must act to protect our waterways, especially the chalk streams of southern England.  These are a critical natural resource and we are lucky to have 85% of them in this country.

But it is not just the water companies that pollute our rivers, farmers too must share the blame.  The problems on the River Wye and its tributaries caused by contamination from poultry manure are well chronicled but that is the tip of the iceberg.  A dairy farm not far from where I live has a poor record.  Last year slurry was spread on a field and not incorporated for around ten days when regulations suggest that should be done within six hours.  The field was on a slope down to the canal.  

This year, just before Easter, farmyard manure was spread on another field and not incorporated within the 24 hour guideline.  There was heavy rain for days afterwards running off into a ditch, brown contaminated water that flowed into the canal and thus the River Kennet.  The field was finally ploughed around three weeks later by which time the damage had been done, the nutrients in the ditch rather than improving soil fertility.  There is no excuse for this blatant failure to follow the guidelines, the heavy rain had been forecast.

There are grants available from the Farming Equipment and Technology Fund and other sources to help farmers with the handling and storage of farm yard manures and slurries.  Farmers should take advantage of those grants and ensure that they are not polluting our waterways.  Flagrant breaches of the regulations should be met with heavy fines and prosecutions if necessary.

The European Water Framework Directive came into force in 2000 committing member states to ensure that all water bodies were in good ecological condition by 2015.  That date was put back and, of course, we are no longer a member state but it is a damning indictment that we have made no progress towards that objective.  The regulators must be empowered and given sufficient resources to achieve their objectives.  It must be a urgent priority for the new Government to address this national disgrace.