Silt and soil polluted river

Water and Sewerage Company Environmental Performance Report: Winning slowly is the same as losing

The Environment Agency published its Environmental Performance Report for water and sewerage companies today, assessing nine water companies’ progress against a set of environmental targets from 2016 to 2020.

This report shows that the water sector has been moving generally in the right direction over the last 5 years — we see for the first time 5 out of 9 of the Water Companies receiving 4 stars for environmental performance — but progress overall is still too slow and persistent laggards are not responding to public and regulatory pressure.

Rebecca Duncan

13/07/21

Press Release - 13th July 2021


The Environment Agency published its Environmental Performance Report for water and sewerage companies today, assessing nine water companies’ progress against a set of environmental targets from 2016 to 2020.

Overall, the report shows 5 out of 9 companies achieved an industry-leading 4 star rating for 2020, and 3 companies achieved this rating for at least 3 of the last 5 years – United Utilities, Severn Trent, and Wessex Water. By contrast, Southern Water and South West Water failed to make any significant environmental progress, with a rating of just 2 stars in 2020. None of the water companies managed to achieve all of the expectations set out by the EA in 2015.

This report shows that the water sector has been moving generally in the right direction over the last 5 years - we see for the first time 5 out of 9 of the Water Companies receiving 4 stars for environmental performance - but progress overall is still too slow and persistent laggards are not responding to public and regulatory pressure.

The Rivers Trust wants to see the inclusion of sewage overspills in this assessment. 1,919 pollution incidents were reported for 2020 from water company sewerage and clean water assets, and yet we know that there were 403,171 raw sewage overspills during the same period. We still need better monitoring and reporting to understand what proportion of these overspills were within permit conditions and which illegally resulted in pollution and risks to river users.

South West Water was worst in class with still only 2 out of 5 stars, and has failed to improve during the last 5 years. Laurence Couldrick, CEO of Westcountry Rivers Trust, says: “In the South West only 1 in every 5 rivers supports a healthy ecology and the bottom line is our rivers are just too polluted.

“Ordinarily, pollution would be countered through regulation, but the number of officers has reduced due to a halving of the government budget over the last decade.

“Recent increases in the Environment Agency budget should help but it doesn't restore enforcement to pre-2008 levels, so both sewage and agricultural pollution will continue.”

Mark Lloyd, CEO of The Rivers Trust, says: “We were glad to see the successful prosecution of Southern Water and the £90 million fine that was levied on them last week. We need to see more strong regulation in this and other sectors. Every company should know that they will not get away with cost-cutting that results in pollution.

“We also need to see an acceleration in investment that will clean up our rivers and much greater emphasis on nature-based solutions as part of the Green Recovery. Last month’s Climate Risk report from the Adaptation Committee showed that the UK is less well prepared than it was for climate change and needs urgently to build resilience. Polluted rivers are a symptom of weak resilience - we need to clean them up quickly and the current pace of progress is far too slow.”

Christine Colvin, Partnerships Director at the Rivers Trust, says “The twinned nature and climate crises that we are facing demand a much faster clean-up and rebuild than we are seeing. We know that winning this race slowly is the same as losing. This sector has considerable knowledge and resources at its disposal. It’s time to make cleaning up its act a priority.”

EPA performance star ratings (out of 4) for the 9 water and sewerage companies 2019-2020 (Environment Agency)

Year

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

Total (out of 20 stars)

Wessex Water

4 stars

4 stars

3 stars

4 stars

4 stars

19 stars

Severn Trent Water

3 stars

4 stars

3 stars

4 stars

4 stars

18 stars

United Utilities

4 stars

4 stars

3 stars

3 stars

4 stars

18 stars

Yorkshire Water

3 stars

3 stars

2 stars

3 stars

4 stars

15 stars

Anglian Water

3 stars

3 stars

3 stars

2 stars

3 stars

14 stars

Northumbrian Water

2 stars

2 stars

4 stars

2 stars

4 stars

14 stars

Thames Water

2 stars

3 stars

3 stars

3 stars

3 stars

14 stars

Southern Water

3 stars

3 stars

2 stars

1 star

2 stars

11 stars

South West Water

2 stars

2 stars

2 stars

2 stars

2 stars

10 stars

Click here to read the full Environment Agency report.

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