Sewage Pollution: Why the UK Water Industry is Broken

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

As a child swimming off the coast of south Devon in the 1960s, I believed the warm water passing through my legs was the Gulf Stream current. Now, as an adult, I realize it was actually raw sewage being discharged into the ocean.

In those days, it was not unusual for coastal towns to pump sewage out to sea where it was believed to be safely diluted. These pollution problems are now resurfacing because of poor management rather than ignorance six decades on.

[...] The U.K.'s wastewater network comprises both sewage and surface water pipes. Homes flush sewage to treatment works, where solids, bacteria and other contaminants are removed. The treated water is then discharged to rivers or the sea.

[...] Sewage and surface water occupy separate systems, but the pipe network is interconnected and combined in parts, the idea being that during heavy rain, the surface water will flow into sewage pipes and dilute it. Today, the opposite is often likely to happen, and it's partly due to the country's ancient and overburdened system for managing wastewater.

The network was designed by Joseph Bazalgette. Construction began in 1858 and was completed in the mid-1870s. There has been little investment to update the pipes or expand the treatment facilities in the intervening 150 years.

One exception is London's new super sewer, which is due to enter service in 2025. Even so, the company responsible admitted it would need to be twice as big to prevent waste spilling into the Thames.

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