Published52 minutes ago
All of England’s storm overflows are now electronically monitored, making it easier to hold water companies to account, the government has announced.
The monitors, called EDMs, report in real time when water companies are releasing sewage into rivers and seas.
There’s been a steady increase in the number of storm overflows being monitored in the last decade.
Sewage is only supposed to be spilled after heavy rain, but last year there were 1.75 million hours of discharges.
There are close to 15,000 storm overflows in England and the government set England’s nine water companies the target of having them all monitored by the end of 2023.
“The completion of storm overflow monitoring is a major step forward in better protecting our precious waterways, as well as the communities and wildlife that rely on them,” said Environment Secretary Steve Barclay.
While many of the companies comfortably reached the goal of total monitoring, the England-wide target was achieved after Thames Water, the UK’s largest water company, recalculated how many outflows form part of its network.
Last year it reported that just 61% of its 777 overflows were monitored.
After the BBC queried how it had managed to reach 100% this year, Thames Water said that as well as adding monitors it had found after closer examination that 158 of the overflows it reported in
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