At last week’s full city council meeting, Green councillor Tom Piotrowski proposed a motion condemning Severn Trent Water’s continued pollution of the River Severn. The motion received the unanimous backing of all political groups, and as a result, the Managing Director will write to Worcester MP Robin Walker and the MP for Shrewsbury, who together speak on behalf of all the constituencies along the length of the River Severn, asking them as a matter of urgency to lobby the government to reverse the cuts to DEFRA’s budget and restore the agency’s ability to tackle the illegal sewage spills and other harmful acts of environmental barbarism affecting the River Severn.
This is a very local issue here in Worcester. The River Severn is undoubtedly one of the city’s main assets and it forms an integral part of life for those who live around it. Over the years it has been a haven for wildlife, an essential transport route, a great place for leisure activities and a vital source of water for people living and working in its catchment.
However, The River Severn was also ranked as the most polluted river in the country in 2021. In that year Severn Trent Water discharged sewage into the river on 2,656 occasions, over 28,741 hours.
In 2021 alone, seven sites have been identified as being polluted by Severn Trent Water. This equated to 265 sewage dumps lasting for 2,094 hours.
Cllr Tom Piotrowski said: ‘In my own ward there were 66 dumps in 2021 equating to 13 hours of a continuous stream of filth going into Duck Brook. There is no way I and my colleagues should remain silent on such an abhorrent act of environmental vandalism.’
Local resident Stephanie Owen also says that paddle-boarding last summer on the Severn between Kempsey and Upton was a horrible experience with her family. She reports that as the water levels were low (due to hot weather) that there was human excrement floating beside them and it smelled horrendous. This was worrying as her young kids had their feet and hands in the water as they floated downstream.
Meanwhile, The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), which oversees all things to do with the environment and agriculture, from farming inspections and nature restoration to cracking down on environmental vandalism including fly-tipping and sewage spills, has experienced a real-term cut of 10.6% over the last two years, equating to £496.8m. That level of cuts leaves the Environment Agency (DEFRA’s enforcement arm) effectively impotent in the face of powerful water companies. Urgent action must be taken.
Across England, raw sewage was dumped into rivers and coastal areas across England more than 300,000 times last year despite a fall in the overall number in 2022, a very dry year. Hundreds of locations are still unmonitored, including in the constituency of Thérèse Coffey, the environment secretary, meaning the true number of spills will be higher.