PRESS RELEASE : Tory MPs vote for 15 more years of sewage dumping [January 2023]
The press release issued by the Liberal Democrats on 26 January 2023.
292 Conservative MPs voted to allow sewage dumping by water companies in our rivers, lakes and coasts for at least 15 more years.
New regulations passed by Conservative MPs will allow water companies to continue dumping sewage into our rivers and seas for another 15 years.
In the last two years water companies in England dumped raw sewage 775,568 times lasting 5,768,679 hours.
The new legilsation set a target of an 80% reduction in phosphates in rivers by 2038. Phosphates are naturally occurring minerals found in human waste and can lead to a dramatic growth in algae and deplete oxygen levels when they are dumped in rivers.
This is a pathetic target which allows water companies to get away with a staggering 15 more years of shameful sewage dumping. This is a betrayal of the British public who rightly want tougher action against water companies.
The water companies that are responsible for dumping sewage into our rivers, lakes and coastal waters every day, now have 15 years to clean up their act. Meanwhile their top execs have paid themselves £51 million, including £30.6 million in bonuses over the last two years.
Conservative MPs should be ashamed of themselves. It will be swimmers and treasured wildlife which pay the price for today’s flimsy target. Water company execs will be cheering this through parliament.
Liberal Democrats proudly voted against these unacceptably weak targets.
