Risborough Sewage Shock

Risborough’s Kingsey Cuttle Brook recently became the latest waterway to be pumped full of raw sewage by Thames Water.

In 2021, UK Water companies discharged sewage into English rivers for a total of 3 million hours. Yet, in 2021 they made c.£2.8 bn in profits and have handed £17 bn to shareholders over the past 11 years, with bosses paying themselves millions in salaries and bonuses.

Campaigner, Feargal Sharkey tweeted ‘This is what decades of underinvestment, profiteering and regulatory failure looks like’.

Ignoring Liberal Democrats’ calls for a ‘sewage tax’ and a ban on executive bonuses, Conservative MPs, including Buckingham’s Greg Smith, voted to protect water company profits rather than our rivers.

Liberal Democrats are calling for Ofwat to be abolished and replaced with a tough new independent regulator with real powers to protect our beaches and rivers from sewage dumps. 

Local Lib Dem campaigner and Town Councillor, Andrew Cross commented:

“Thames Water is a major threat to our rivers and streams, on which so much of our local environment and wildlife depend. Please support our petition to end this abuse.”