John Russell, Senior Director of Strategy, Finance, and Infrastructure at Ofwat, has warned the water companies that it is “not acceptable to hide behind regulation or say they can't do anything until the next price review” to tackle current levels of pollution and wastewater discharges from their networks.

Joihn Russell told delegates at a wastewater conference In London earlier this week that the water sector must “address its role in this thoroughly in both the short and long term” and that in the immediate term, they have both “the ability and the resources available to make an impact now.”

“They know what their obligations are, what is the right thing to do…We need water company responses to the legitimate concerns about pollution from their networks to be timely, accessible, and transparent. Too often the response has been silence.”

The Ofwat director set the challenges in the context of a complex picture characterised by:

• growing widespread public anger due to sewage spills in watercourses and horrific pictures of effluent strewn riverbanks and harbours.
• the report by the Environmental Audit Committee following its inquiry into the quality of river water in the UK which painted a bleak picture of England's water quality. with only 14% meeting good" ecological status
• waterways described as 'chemical cocktails' and public eyesores
• all parts of the water sector facing criticism

John Russell also highlighted the fact that watercourses also suffer the consequences of pollution as a by-product of other activities such as industrial use and farming. In addition, housing developments that lack permeable areas for natural drainage and the behaviours of the everyday person also impact the wastewater system.

However, while he acknowledged that the water sector is not the only cause, he warned that “the combined outcome of all these issues is an impact that cannot be left unaddressed.”

He called on the water companies to urgently look at how they are monitoring and maintaining their wastewater networks and assets, targeting the places where failures cause the most harm as well as establishing how they can better use real time data to predict and prevent issues occurring.

In addition, they also needed to implement customer engagement plans that provide education on the impact of non-biodegradable waste on our networks, saying that “implementing nature-based solutions and sustainable urban drainage schemes can be cost effective and are key to keeping water out of the sewer network in the first place.”

Referring to the launch last year by Ofwat of a major investigation to understand if and how often water companies in England and Wales are breaking the conditions of their environmental permits at wastewater treatment works, the regulator was taking “a broad range of urgent action to hold them to account”, he said. Ofwat’s aim is to complete its initial assessment by the end of February 2022, to inform its next steps.

He outlined what a great future would look like, including:

• eliminating pollution from wastewater networks through investment
• real time monitoring, better customer education and management of the water networks
• delivering more efficient solutions and building long-term resilience via strong and aligned collaboration across and outside of the sector
• a rise in green and blue infrastructure that harnesses the power of nature-based solutions and promotes a healthy and resilient environment

John Russell concluded:

“Through these actions, I also see a widespread reduction of carbon production across the water sector and proactive steps being taken towards embedded net zero targets.

“Companies can and should be working towards these challenges now. By the time we reach PR24 there should already be real improvements visible, and the long term should be in focus with plans for PR29 and beyond continuing to add to efforts to reach our shared purpose.”