Water industry regulator Ofwat has opened a consultation on a range of options for introducing effective market competition into the water and sewerage sectors in England and Wales.

Members of the Blueprint for Water coalition have written to the Guardian newspaper describing the Consumer Council for Water's recent comment that revoking environmentally damaging abstraction licences could see domestic supplies dry up as “both alarmist and inaccurate”.

Defra has  published its response to the consultation on measures to implement the Nitrates Directive. Implementation of the Nitrates Directive is a “base measure” for the purposes of implementing the Water Framework Directive.

Water Services Regulation Authority Ofwat for water and sewerage companies in England and Wales has said that latest results show the companies have delivered improvements to customer services and the environment.

Ofwat has today published a comprehensive policy statement on climate change and the water sector in England and Wales.

Defra has published its annual guide to the UK's key sustainable development indicators which provides a statistical overview of the country's progress in tackling key economic, social and environmental issues.

A water company contractor has been ordered to pay £9,736 in fines and costs after sewage leaked into the sea on a Blue Flag beach at Dawlish at the start of the town’s annual carnival and the height of the bathing season

The water companies have come in for serious criticism in yesterday’s Sunday Times, which has accused them of dumping unlimited amounts of raw sewage from 3500 overflow pipes into more than 80 rivers and along sections of the coast.