Jim McMahon (Oldham West and Royton)
I beg to move that this House calls on the Government to set a target for the reduction of sewage discharges, to provide for financial penalties in relation to sewage discharges and breaches of monitoring requirements, and to carry out an impact assessment of sewage discharges; and makes provision as set out in this Order:
With just over a week to go until the UK hosts the COP26 climate summit, there is intense focus on ministers’ green credentials.
Last Wednesday, 265 MPs voted with the government to reject an attempt by the House of Lords to toughen up the approach to the discharge of sewage, while 22 Conservative MPs rebelled and voted against the government.
The move has sparked an uproar on social media.
Peers had tabled an amendment to the Environment Bill that would have forced water companies and the government to demonstrate progressive reductions in discharges of untreated sewage and required them to “take all reasonable steps” to avoid using combined sewer overflows.
But ministers said the changes were unnecessary because safeguards are already contained in the bill.
‘Every river polluted’
Speaking on Radio 4’s Today programme, former singer Fergal Sharkey, who now campaigns to clean up the nation’s waterways, said it was a “disgrace”.
“We’re lecturing the rest of the planet on climate change yet the reality is there is not a single river in England that makes good overall environmental health,” he said.
He said “every single river” in England is polluted and “a major cause is the water industry dumping sewage”.
He added: “The truth is what we are looking at is the result of a massive under-investment in infrastructure for the last 30 years and a complete failure of oversight and regulation of the industry by Ofwat, the environment agency and the government itself.”
He said ministers were “unwilling and incapable” of dealing with the situation.
Courtesy of the BBC
So if you swim in a river and you become unwell or your kids get ill from swimming in the sea this summer, remember the MPs who care, who do not mind if our rivers are polluted with fertiliser run off and if we jettison our waste into our water supply without treating it. Remember their contempt for the voters, If Orwell were alive the pigs at the trough would be drowning animal farm in effluent.
