Annual data released today indicated a shocking picture of England’s waterways. In total, there were 464,056 sewage spills in 2023, with these spills lasting for over 3.5 million hours. Yorkshire Water is among the most prolific polluters.
This national data reflects a 54% increase in the number of sewage spills compared to 2022.
Here in the Yorkshire region, the number of total spills was 77,761, with a total spill of 516,386 hours, with many areas seeing hundreds of spills by themselves.
When compared against the other water companies, Yorkshire Water was recorded as being the second worst offender in the country.
Yorkshire Water response
Yorkshire Water responded to this data revealed today by telling Yorkshire Bylines that:
“We are committed to improving our region’s rivers and were disappointed about the number of discharges in 2023. This increase is due to the wet weather experienced in the twelve-month period, which included 11 named storms. The weather experienced in the region in 2023 included a very wet summer and prolonged heavy rainfall towards the end of the year resulting in groundwater infiltration into the sewer network.”
Yorkshire Water blames the rain
Yorkshire Water continued by claiming that the amount of rainfall was a factor.
“Met Office statistics show 1178mm of rainfall in our area in 2023, the highest level since 2013 and with the second half of the year one of the wettest on record. The Met Office named 2023 the 6th wettest year since its records began in 1836. Overflows operate during prolonged or heavy rainfall and multiple storms in close succession can lead to increased discharges due to the storm capacity being used up.
“Nevertheless, we know there is more to do, and we are making headway with a £180mn programme to reduce discharges across the region by April 2025. Work is in progress on 62 projects that will reduce discharges from some of the most frequently operating overflows, with more to follow later in the year. This is just the start of a long-term programme to reduce the impact of wastewater on the region’s watercourses and we have submitted plans to Ofwat that outline a further £1.19bn investment in overflow reduction between 2025 and 2030.”
However, buried in the explanatory information from the water companies, which highlights the three factors of exceptional rainfall, asset maintenance and hydraulic capacity, Yorkshire Water’s claim of excessive rainfall does not stand up to scrutiny.
Only 7.1% of the spills were due to exceptional rainfall. 83.6% were due to hydraulic capacity and 6.3% were due to asset maintenance.
Hydraulic capacity was defined in the report as:
“If the reason for a high spilling storm overflow (over 60 times per year) is neither ‘exceptional rainfall’ nor ‘asset maintenance’ then the reason is classified under the ‘hydraulic capacity’ category.
“This indicates there is insufficient capacity (conveyance or storage) in the sewer network to cope with the wastewater flow plus typical rainfall entering the sewer network.”
Long term trends show shocking picture
Waterways campaigner Feargal Sharkey made the point that over the past five years, the duration amount of sewage entering the waterways has been almost 14 million hours, as he posted on X
“13,618,860 hours over the last 5 years and govt would have you believe that’s progress.”
In the data released today by the government, the long term trends were alarming. Since Brexit, the numbers of the duration of spills has exploded from approximately 2.5 million hours to approximately 3.6 million hours, with the total number of spills rising from 292,864 spills in 2019 to an incredible 464,056 spills in 2023, only four years later.
Huge investment needed from the industry
These long-term trends look set to continue unless regulators task water companies effectively and severely. Customers look set to face significant rises in their water bills – in Yorkshire over 30% in the next five years. Sewage discharges into rivers and waterways continue to increase, which will perhaps prompt more customers nationally to sue water companies for not providing the service.
