Editor's note: From the safety of swimming beaches to the health of river systems, the United Kingdom's waterways are in a bad shape. This page takes a close look at the country's sewage pollution crisis, which has been worsening because of untreated sewage released into rivers and seas by privatized water companies.
An aerial view shows activists from the campaign group Surfers Against Sewage paddleboarding to protest against sewage pollution in Brighton, southern England, on May 20, 2023. (PHOTO / AFP)
In a speech from William Shakespeare's play Richard II, England is described as "this scepter'd isle ... This precious stone set in the silver sea", as the speaker celebrates his homeland, before changing tone to warn of a darker mood.
"England, bound in with the triumphant sea, whose rocky shore beats back the envious siege of watery Neptune, is now bound in with shame."
But this summer, the seas around Britain are far more shameful than silver, because at sites along the 17,820 kilometers of the mainland coastline, there is a dirty, smelly problem that is not going away.
The "scepter'd isle" is set in a sea of sewage, and its arterial rivers are also infected. Britain has a full-on clean water crisis, and the privatized water companies that have caused it are in increasingly serious financial peril.
Arguably Britain's most famous coastal resort is Blackpool, on the northwest coast of Lancashire, famed for its long beaches. But in June, with the tourist season barely having begun, visitors were told to stay out of the sea after traces of E. coli bacteria were found in the water, following a sewage spill from drains maintained by United Utilities, which has been declared England's most polluting water company, and which recently paid dividends to shareholders worth 301 million pounds ($380.7 million).
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Blackpool Council leader Lynn Williams has described the situation as "incredibly disappointing and really worrying… it's appalling", and it has been repeated elsewhere, BBC reported last month.
At Scarborough, Yorkshire, campaign group Surfers Against Sewage staged an event to protest against sewage discharges, only to be advised by lifeguards that it was not safe to go into the water because of its poor quality.
Utility company Yorkshire Water said work to improve the water would begin within two years.
With the United Kingdom's housing crisis and climate change putting further strains on the aging drainage system, and with reports that water bills are on course to rise significantly during a cost of living crisis, as well as a general election on the far horizon, water is becoming an ever-bigger political issue, and a source of genuine public anger.
In most British houses, a combined sewerage system means rainwater and domestic wastewater go through the same pipes, usually to a sewage treatment plant.
An activist sits on a toilet at the entrance to Downing Street to protest against raw sewage dumping in the rivers and seas around the UK after leaving the EU in London, Oct 26, 2021. (PHOTO / AP)
System overload
However, when there is excessive rainfall or the ground is too hard to absorb rainwater, the potential for system overload allows for the permitted discharge of excess wastewater into the sea and rivers.
Last year was the United Kingdom's hottest year on record, causing hard-baked ground, unable to absorb water, weather forecasting bureau the Met Office has confirmed, and all the signs are that extreme conditions — heavier rainfall and higher temperatures — will be more commonplace in the future.
There is concern that permitted discharge has been abused by water companies, which have failed to invest in and maintain their infrastructure, to dump sewage into otherwise clean water.
After years of paying shareholders large dividends, and burdening themselves with debt, rising interest rates have exposed some companies' financial vulnerability, leading to more frequent sewage dumping because of the lack of adequate alternative provision.
In 2018, then-environment secretary Michael Gove wrote to the head of the water services regulation authority Ofwat expressing fears over how it was run.
"The use by some water companies of opaque financial structures based in tax havens and high gearing is deeply concerning," he wrote. "I also share your concern that some water companies have, for many years, been making excessive profits."
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Environmental campaigner Feargal Sharkey told the Good Morning Britain news program that the dumping crisis was "masking a much bigger issue" — these companies have been ram-raided by their owners for cash.
" (Since privatization) they've made off with 72 billion pounds ($92.2 billion) of our bills and our money, and perhaps some of that should have been spent fixing leaky pipes and the sewage system.
"That's what has caused this crisis — interest rates have gone up, and they can't afford to service the debt on the balance sheets."
The health of Britain's rivers is no less worrying. Most major cities are built around or close to rivers, such as the Thames, the Mersey, the Trent, the Tyne and the Clyde, but arguably more important than urban rivers, whose arterial functions have been overtaken by infrastructure buildup, are rural rivers.
One of the most important is the River Wye, the country's fourth-longest river.
For much of its 250-kilometer length, it is the border between England and Wales, famed for its areas of outstanding natural beauty, and its fish stock.
High-profile victim
But more recently, it has become one of the most high-profile victims of the river pollution crisis, because in addition to sewage, agricultural waste, particularly from poultry farms, is ending up in its water after being used as fertilizer on fields, and then being washed in.
In May last year, a study by Lancaster University found that 60 to 70 percent of the phosphorus in the Wye came from agriculture, and 12 months later, government nature watchdog Natural England downgraded its status from unfavorable-improving to unfavorable-declining.
The Rivers Trust is the umbrella group for 65 river trusts, including the Wye. Tessa Wardley, the trust's director of communications and advocacy, told China Daily that it was close to a tipping point where its ecosystem could collapse.
"Each river has its own problems because a river is an indicator of everything going on in its catchment area, and the Wye has a uniquely heavy concentration of poultry farms — around one-quarter of the country's chickens and eggs are produced along the banks of the Wye, which was a deliberately encouraged government policy," she said.
"Not only that, but for planning purposes, lots of the chicken sheds were put close to the riverbank. Most of the food the chickens eat is derived from soya products from abroad, so it already has a footprint, and then becomes an additional unnatural loading of nutrients into the system, so the Wye has very particular problems."
Environmental charity River Action UK monitors the state of Britain's waterways and water industry, and aims to bring about action and change when needed. At the moment, its chief executive, James Wallace, told China Daily that it is needed everywhere.
"When the water industry was privatized 30 years ago, the companies were debt-free and the system was in reasonable condition. But since then, the companies have indebted themselves to pay shareholders huge dividends and high salaries to CEOs, so now they have big debts, an outdated system and no money to update it," he said.
"It's been a slow, insidious process allowed by a government that encourages deregulation, and it's only become headline news now because of people and communities educating themselves about what is going on, standing up and saying 'no'."
There are rules that exist, but there seems to be a lack of willingness to enforce them, which has resulted in an environmental crisis, and now a political crisis.
"People like us are making this political — you can't do anything without water," Wallace said.
"We're facing a freshwater emergency, we're running out of supplies, wildlife is declining, public health is at risk, and food production and the entire economy will soon be at risk.
"North London will have water rationing soon, there are hosepipe bans in place, and this is only June. Meanwhile, the companies make huge amounts of money.
"In extreme circumstances, water companies are allowed to release untreated sewage into rivers, but it's happening all the time.
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"On May 9 at Henley-on-Thames (in England), untreated sewage discharge was allowed for 12 hours, and that's when there had been no rain for weeks. In 2016, there were 100,000 hours of sewage spills in England's rivers, in 2021 that figure was 2.6 million hours."
Agricultural waste
On top of sewage, there is the challenge of agricultural waste discharge, which could in fact be dried and sold as an alternative to artificial fertilizers. But in many cases, it is easier to dump it in nearby rivers, at a small financial cost but a much bigger ecological one.
"If you're the CEO of a water company or agriculture business, river pollution is an acceptable risk," Wallace said. "You'll get a small fine, but it's nothing compared to the alternative, which is investing in infrastructure, so it's a risk worth taking."
However, the longer-term price, as shown by the health of the Wye, is a heavy one.
"There are thousands of poultry sheds in a small catchment area, producing tons of waste. Much of it gets washed into the river and causes the growth of algal blooms, which shut out the light getting into the water, and the lack of oxygen kills wildlife," he said.
Wardley of The Rivers Trust said the crisis becoming such a public issue does offer hope for change. "As long as the pressure stays on, there is hope, but the risk is that because of the baying for water company's blood, they may put in short-term solutions that don't have long-term benefits," she said.
Wallace too acknowledged there is no flick of a switch solution that could cure everything, but said something must be done.
"We're in a freshwater emergency, when is the government going to act like we are?" he said.
"We can bail out banks, we can give tax breaks to oil and gas companies, so why don't we treat water like it matters? We could easily afford to treat it if water was seen as being as important as energy, education or policing, but we seem to be at the bottom of the pile.
"This is an emergency. When are the water industry and agriculture going to be made to invest in infrastructure so they don't pollute? That way, we can secure clean water, not just for future generations, but for us, now. We're running out."
