We're working hard to prevent river pollution

As part of our Get River Positive approach we intend to make sure that our storm overflows and sewage treatment works do not harm rivers, based on the Environment Agency measures (RNAGS - Reasons for Not Achieving Good Status).

Despite a great deal of progress over the last 30 years, water companies are responsible for 24% of river pollution issues. Although we have made significant progress since 1989, we haven’t kept pace with recent public feelings and expectations on river health. That’s why we’re working hard to do more.

Get River Positive is our clear intention and commitment to ensuring we restore and revitalise our region’s rivers.

Population in the Severn Trent region has increased by 16% between 2006 and 2020. 

The mixture of climate change, population growth and increased development has
meant that there are more instances of flooding and as a result it means we are
seeing more instances of storm overflows having to be used.

Improving river health is a team game

We are committed to doing all we can to take leadership on many of the issues our region’s rivers face and to partner with others to make our region’s rivers the healthiest they can be. 

Source: The Environment Agency Catchment Data Explorer, September 2021

We’ll take our impact on rivers down to 0% by 2030.

Agriculture

Agriculture is the largest contributor (36%) to rivers not achieving good status, according to the EA. As we experience more extreme weather conditions, more
fertiliser, natural waste and pesticides from farms inevitably make it into more rivers.

Our catchment management team already works in partnership with farmers,  landowners and stakeholders across our region to protect drinking water quality. We offer grants to support farmers and continue to work closely with them on initiatives to improve the impact on the environment. However, we are committed to doing more to support the sector.

Our Regenerative Pathway Package for Farmers supports our third river pledge, to support others to improve and care for rivers. It builds on our brilliant existing scheme – Farming for Water which we have been offering for over 10 years.

Our Farming for Water scheme is only available to farmers in our priority catchments (specific areas across the region where we abstract water to treat and use for drinking water), however we are keen to redouble our efforts and help more farmers, as well as enhancing the support for our priority farmers too.  

With this in mind, from 1st May 2022 we are partnering with Agreena to offer additional support through on-hand advice for farmers across our whole Severn Trent region. We are also offering financial incentives for tree planting through our Trees for Water scheme. 

Urban development and transport account for 11% of reasons for rivers not achieving good status in England.

New build housing

We’re asking for the removal of developers’ automatic right to connect new surface water drains to our network (i.e. drains carrying largely rainwater). A much better solution environmentally and economically would be for this rainwater to instead be captured by nature-enhancing swales and ponds – or even re-used to flush toilets.   

We’re also taking action to improve the problem of excess rainwater, by reducing the volume and speed of rainwater entering the sewer network in a number of different ways – from helping households capture rainwater from gutters using simple water butts (which are great for water gardens in a cheap and environmentally sustainable way) to town-wide schemes like the one we’re pioneering in Mansfield.

Urban Development and Transport

Rivers are also polluted by run off from roads, including everything from road grit to tyre waste. 

The clear principle supported by Government is that the polluter should pay, but more clarification is required. We are calling on Government to set up a time-limited commission to suggest ways to solve this problem.  

Wet wipes and other unflushables

Sewage pollution can be caused by blockages in the sewer network – and wet wipes and other unflushables are often a major source of these blockages.

The simplest and most environmentally friendly solution and one that we are campaigning for would be for the Government to ban single use wet wipes that contain plastic. At the very least, ministers should require such products to carry clear, bold warnings about the harm they cause to the environment and the increased risk they pose to sewer flooding.

Preventing our sewers being blocked could save numerous pollutions each year and would be a key step in our journey to halving pollutions and eliminating serious
pollutions. 

We have a blockage education campaign that has been positively recognised by Ofwat. It
can be broken down into: 

  • Customer education through marketing and media channels 
  • Education in schools to positively influence the next generation 
  • Network Protection team playing a vital role in reducing repeat blockages  
  • Working with food service establishments in partnership with ECAS to educate on commercial FOG disposal​