There’s much more in Britain’s broken water system that needs fixing than sewage treatment alone, according to an industry veteran and leading member of the Worshipful Company of Water Conservators. But after years of starving the industry of investment, because of pressure from government and the water regulator Ofwat to keep prices down, customers will now have to pay to fix the problems.
Interviewed alongside water campaigner Feargal Sharkey on Radio 4’s PM programme (Monday 31 March), Colin Drummond, a past master of the Company, said the issue of combined sewage overflows — in which surface water drains and sewage both end up in the same treatment plants and overload them — was fudged after the water industry was privatized in 1989. “Engineers in 1990 were aware of it but were essentially told to go away. The political pressure was to keep prices down.”
Asked by presenter Evan Davies whether water companies or bill payers should pay to clean up the present mess, Drummond, a former chief executive of the waste management company Viridor and executive director of Pennon, which owns South West Water, said: “The current system is that the customers pay, because the government doesn’t have the money, and we can’t go back to local authorities controlling water because they don’t have the money either. Someone has to pay and the amount is eye-watering — we’re talking £104bn over the next five years, and it’s going to continue at that kind of level because so much needs to be done.”
And he added that there were other huge problems that needed attention, such as ensuring sufficient clean water supplies, building additional reservoirs to deal with population growth and spending more on maintenance to make sure Britain’s creaking water and waste systems were fit for the future.
For further information contact Nick Higham, highamnews@gmail.com
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