Water firms told to pour money into sewage

Mark Milner, industrial editor
The Guardian,
Monday October 27 2008

The Environment Agency is calling on water companies in England and Wales to step up their spending on infrastructure maintenance in an attempt to cut pollution and the impact of flooding.
It also wants the companies to increase their efforts to reduce demand for water and use their resources more efficiently.
The water companies have submitted their business plans for the five years from 2010 to the industry regulator, Ofwat.
The Environment Agency said it was pleased by many of the proposals put forward but warned more needed to be done.
"There is a lot to commend in the proposals from the water companies," said David King, the Environment Agency's director of water management. "However, we are keen to see more detail on their plans for capital maintenance. We need to be reassured that such investment is in the right areas to protect the environment and will deliver value for money."
The Environment Agency calculated that last year water companies were responsible for a fifth of all serious pollution incidents, many of which, it said, were caused by poorly maintained, overloaded or ageing sewerage infrastructure. It said they should invest more money to reduce the risk of pollution incidents.
It said it would also be pressing the companies to review their plans on how to protect water treatment and sewage works, many of which were close to rivers, from the risk of flooding. And it wanted more work on tackling surface water flooding - caused when drains overflow.
The companies have submitted their business plans as part of the process by which Ofwat will determine the prices they can charge customers for water and waste water services between 2010 and 2015.
King said the Environment Agency did not expect the water companies to come up with all the investment it wanted to see within one pricing period, but as part of a process of continuing investment.