Last year, the Conservatives allowed 15 days’ worth of raw sewage to be dumped into Edmonton’s open spaces. Labour analysis of Environment Agency data shows that in 2022, raw sewage was discharged into Edmonton for 120 hours.
The data comes after Labour analysis revealed that nationally since 2016, a new sewage dumping event has taken place an average of every two-and-a-half minutes, with rivers, lakes, seas, and beaches having faced a staggering 1,276 years’ worth of raw sewage over just a seven-year period.
The news will inevitably once again spark serious concern at the environmental, health and economic impact that sewage dumping is having on communities across the country and the failure of privatised companies to resolve such a disturbing issue.
Indeed, a Parliamentary Question tabled by Shadow Environment Secretary Jim McMahon, revealed that the Government has failed to conduct any economic assessments of the impact of sewage pollution on tourism trade and businesses.
During the passage of the Environment Bill, Conservative MPs, voted to allow water firms to continue sewage dumping, having blocked a Labour-backed amendment that would have progressively eliminated sewage dumping.
The sewage crisis shows how badly the privatisation of water companies has failed. For decades profits have been extracted by shareholders when they should have been reinvested in infrastructure. That lack of investment has led to the spectre of raw sewage being dumped in our rivers. The UK is the only country in the world with a fully privatised water system. It’s a system that is broken. Now it’s time to end this crazy experiment and listen to the public who overwhelmingly back re-nationalising the water companies.
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