The environment minister, Rebecca Pow, has promised to bring in legislation to reduce discharge of raw sewage into rivers. Pow said that she would be placing a legal duty on government to come up with a plan to cut dumping by water companies by September 2022. The Guardian revealed that in 2019, water companies discharged raw sewage from storm overflows for 1.5m hours in 204,000 incidents. Pow said the legal duty would mean that government would have to report to parliament on its progress on reducing sewage discharges. “The evidence is already clear – water companies treat UK rivers like open sewers whilst making huge profits.

Source: The Guardian March 29, 2021 04:52 UTC