Thanks to the Big Give Trust donations to London Waterkeeper will be doubled until Tuesday the 29th April (ends midday). DONATE HERE!
We are one of the few river charities that doesn't take money from water companies or the Government. This allows us to be truly independent. We can scrutinise their plans without bias and hold them to account. We can also support them when they get things right, and people can trust us.
We pushed Thames Water to put its sewer overflows online, in real-time. They were the first water company to do this, two years before others. We welcomed their decision. This data has allowed us to determine where the worst sewer overflows are. But the debate has moved on since then. It's no longer simply about how many spills or how long they last. We need resilient and cost-effective solutions.
We are using the law to investigate what Thames Water plans to do. We've found that the company makes better decisions as a result of our action. For example, with people who care about the Wealdstone Brook we have regular meetings with Thames Water. This has seen them re-organise the way they work in North West London. As a result there is less pollution in the river. There is still a way to go, but it is an effective partnership.
If you give before midday tomorrow your donation will be doubled. If you have already supported us, thank you. DONATE HERE.
Regulators not regulating
The National Audit Office recently published its investigation of the water sector regulators. It's not reassuring.
We have some of the highest quality drinking water in the world. The regulator for this, the DWI has a duty to inspect the infrastructure that supplies it. But neither the Environment Agency nor Ofwat check on wastewater infrastructure.
So it's no surprise that Thames Water has a £19 billion asset health deficit. It confessed to this in its new business plan "The decline in health has taken place over decades as we have stretched the life of our assets, repairing rather than replacing. Poor asset health is an important root cause of our performance challenges today. The cost of managing our aging assets and dealing with failures is increasing."
The NAO also found that "Out of the 8,780 actions in the 2020-2025 control period that water companies said have been completed so far, the Environment Agency conducted site inspections on 1%."
The regulators aren't effectively regulating. They are recruiting more staff but it won't be enough to cope with the backlog. That's why the work that we do is important. We can focus on areas that the regulators don't. With your help we can push for action that otherwise wouldn't happen.
This allows people to use the law to hold the authorities to account, for free. You don't have to start an expensive legal action. In any case most legal actions that charities take are Judicial Reviews, which don't enforce the law, but require a policy to be re-written.
Our latest action is designed to make Thames Water develop effective plans to reduce sewer overflows, that use green infrastructure. Sending our legally binding email means they have to reply to you. Take Action!
With billions about to be spent we need this oversight -
Ofwat told the NAO "there is also a risk that water companies may not currently have the procurement skills to run a competitive tender and manage and deliver contracts for this scale and duration, as this is very different from their day-to-day operations.".