17 Apr 2025

Image description: People attending a march. A man is wearing a green t-shirt which reads “don’t poison our water”. Image credit The Climate Reality Project.   Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) have released their annual water quality report, which “brings together sewage discharge data, sickness data and figures from our Safer Seas and Rivers Service app […]

17 Apr 2025

Image description: Rowing boats stowed away. Image credit Antonio Babuli/ Pexels.   The  iconic Oxford v Cambridge Boat Race took place on Sunday 13 April. However, pre-race excitement was overshadowed by results from water-quality testing, which revealed levels of E. coli bacteria almost three times above the Environment Agency’s threshold for “poor” bathing waters, along […]

17 Apr 2025

Image description: The Roman Baths museum in Bath. Image credit Rachel Claire / Pexels.   The University of Bath has opened the UK’s first pilot wastewater monitoring centre which it says could help avoid future pandemics. The early-warning public health surveillance system is based on detecting traces of chemicals and biological markers found in water. […]

17 Apr 2025

Image description: Sewage pipes on the right flow out into an ocean on the left. Image by Tom Fisk / Pexels.   New levy proposed to cover enforcement costs  The Environment Agency (EA) has revealed details of how it intends to implement a levy on water companies to recoup the money it needs to carry […]

10 Apr 2025

Image description: A wading curlew foraging in water. Image by Rober So / Pexels.   New planning reforms could push species towards extinction and destroy precious habitats, the UK’s leading nature organisations have warned the government. The heads of over 30 UK conservation groups have written to Defra Secretary of State Steve Reed and Housing […]

27 Mar 2025

Raw sewage was released into England’s rivers and seas for a record 3.61 million hours last year as Labour calls the new figures “disgraceful”. The Rivers Trust analysis of Environment Agency spill data counted 450,398 discharges. While the number of sewage spills by water companies marginally decreased compared to 2023, each spill lasted longer on […]

27 Mar 2025

 Image description: Two laptops with charts and reports. Image by Photo by Nataliya Vaitkevich / Pexels.   The record-breaking eighth asset management period (AMP8) comes at a critical time for the water sector in England and Wales. Next month AMP8 will begin its roll-out, which includes a doubling of capital works, while consumer bills are […]