WD News: Water firms charge customers to treat sewage, but instead have been widely discharging it in to rivers and on to beaches, according to researchers from Fideres.
According to the researchers, the firms have not invested enough, leading to an “excessively low quality service.” However, a water industry body said firms were putting in place a £56bn programme to tackle spills.
Water firms in England have been under pressure to clean up their act after discharging sewage into rivers and the sea 400,000 times in 2020.
The water industry in England and Wales is currently under criminal investigation by regulators Ofwat and the Environment Agency over sewage discharges, and it has opened six enforcement cases against companies.
However, the Fideres researchers called for further action over competition concerns, as first reported by the Guardian.
Customers do not get to choose their water company – which one they get just depends on where they live.
Water firms have an effective monopoly, but are constrained on how much they can charge customers by Ofwat.
According to researchers, water firms had still “abused” their position by not investing enough, with investment in wastewater and sewage networks falling over time.
A certain amount of people’s water bills is supposed to go towards cleaning waste water. But due to the spills, “There is a reasonable case to be made under competition law that users may have been overcharged by approximately £163m over the last six years”, the researchers said.
They called for an investigation of water firms either by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), or by Ofwat.
According to BBC, Ofwat’s position is that sewage discharges, particularly ones which close beaches, are not acceptable, which is why it is investigating 2,200 water treatment works in England.
The regulator has also called for urgent action from water firms on sewage discharges caused by storm overflows.
Ofwat is also working with other regulators, including the Environment Agency, which is carrying out a criminal investigation in to how firms are complying with environmental permits.
The regulator has also taken action against Southern Water which was fined a record £90m in 2021 for deliberately dumping billions of raw sewage into the sea.
Source and image courtesy: BBC
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