The publisher of The Mirror and Sunday Mirror newspapers and the Mirror online edition has targeted the pay received by the CEOs of the water and sewage companies in England at the same time as linking it to the discharge of raw sewage into the country’s seas and rivers.
An article entitled 'Fat cat' water firm bosses earn £15m as amount of raw sewage dumped in rivers rockets” says a Mirror probe has revealed that the nine water and wastewater company chiefs companies in England received more than £15million in pay and bonuses last year - the average wage was nearly £1.7m and their standard salary rise was 27%,
The Mirror is flagging up the payments as coming amid “an outcry over pollution, with sewage discharges at bathing sites up 88% in 2020.”
The article sets out detailed analysis of the the nine companies’ performance, referring to the recent launch of investigations by both the Environment Agency and Ofwat after “several firms admitted many of their treatment works may be discharging sewage in breach of permits.”
The highly critical article says that the nine companies made nearly £2.8 billion in profits in 2020/21, with four paying £776 million in dividends to shareholders, commenting:
“ The nine water companies were privatised in 1989 without debt but in the last 30 years their owners have burdened them with £56bn of borrowings.”
“Our probe found the major shareholders of England’s water networks include the governments of Singapore, China, Abu Dhabi and Kuwait but not the UK’s. Scottish Water is owned by the Scottish Government while Welsh Water is a not-for-profit firm.”
The article also includes comments in response by Water UK, the organisation which represents all the UK water companies, the Environment Agency, Ofwat and four of the companies cited in the story.
The water companies are currently the focus of ongoing widespread criticism over the issue of raw sewage discharges. On Monday The Telegraph published an article calling for a national plan to “clean up England’s filthy rivers”, saying it was partly due to the “consequence of decades of low investment in sewage plants.”
Click here to read the Mirror article in full online
Sulzer has launched a new global Center of Excellence (CoE) for Water Treatment Solutions - the CoE consolidates Sulzer’s wastewater treatment expertise in a unified and global manner.
“SAS (Surplus Activated Sludge) is a bit weird and 
Owen Mace has taken over as Director of the British Plastics Federation (BPF) Plastic Pipes Group on the retirement of Caroline Ayres. He was previously Standards and Technical Manager for the group.
PureTec Separations, the Ledbury-based water treatment engineering firm, has appointed Dan Norman as its new Sales Manager – Water Process Systems, supporting the company’s continued growth in the UK and international markets.
Hear how Scottish Water has completed its £235 million Ayrshire Glasgow Resilience Project - customers across Greater Glasgow, Ayrshire and East Renfrewshire will now benefit from a more secure and resilient water supply.
Hear how United Utilities is accelerating its investment to reduce spills from storm overflows across the Northwest.
Find out more about the remarkable career opportunities on offer at WSP - scroll down to watch the inspirational video.