A BBC News reporter said his ‘jaw dropped’ when he read a new report into the level of water pollution in England.
The report from the Environment Agency released on Friday revealed that serious pollution incidents by water companies have risen 60% in a year.
In 2024, there were 2,801 pollution incidents in England, 75 of which were considered to pose “serious or persistent” harm to fisheries, drinking water and human health. Both these figures are a record high, up from 2,174 total incidents in 2023, 47 of which were the most serious.
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Reacting to the findings, BBC News’ environment correspondent Jonah Fisher said his ‘jaw dropped when I saw the figures released,’ even after he thought he’d seen it all when it came to water pollution.
Fisher said: “I do a lot of report on the figures in terms of how much sewage is put into our river, lakes and seas. I thought I had stopped being surprised at the amount that is being discharged – my jaw dropped when I saw the figures released this morning.
“A 60% increase in serious pollution, that’s category one and two, which means there’s a major or significant impact on the water eco system.”
Fisher highlighted out 81% of the serious pollution incidents in the report were the responsibility of just three water companies – Yorkshire Water (13), Southern Water (15)and, you’ve guessed it, Thames Water, which was top of the tree with 33 serious incidents.
The total number of pollution incidents was up by 29% last year.
On top of this, almost a quarter of water company sites inspected were in breaking the laws of their license and therefore not doing their job properly.
Reacting to the report, Environment Secretary Steve Reed said: “These figures are disgraceful and are a stark reminder of how years of underinvestment and weak regulation have led to record levels of sewage polluting our rivers.”
The scandal of British water only gets worse…