Water boss blames ‘explosion’ of wild swimming and canoeing for calling attention to sewage in UK rivers

A water industry boss has sparked anger after appearing to blame the public’s use of rivers for wild swimming for highlighting the amount of sewage that is in them.

Speaking during a House of Lords committee on Tuesday (13 June), David Henderson, chief executive of Water UK, claimed that raw sewage being pumped into UK rivers has become so public because more people are taking up outdoor water activities, such as wild swimming and canoeing.

He told the committee that the industry “didn’t really keep up with how people now expect the environment to be able to be used” and “there has been an explosion in open-water swimming, cold-water swimming, use of canoes and paddlers in reservoirs and other waterways.”

He added that in order for people to be able to use the environment for activities and sports such as these “there needs to be less waste going into the rivers and into other waterways.”

Committee member Lord Cromwell questioned Mr Henderson for appearing to blame the public for the sewage scandal, saying “surely that isn’t the problem at all.”

Lord Cromwell said: “It’s not that people want to swim in the rivers or use the water in different ways, it is that the water is being polluted by sewage overflows which haven’t been sufficiently controlled.”

Mr Henderson responded by saying that the industry “should have woken up earlier and that is why we are apologising.”

He went on to say that the industry will treble its investment and “that is about how fast we can possibly manage given the constraints on the supply chain and elsewhere in the economy.”

He added: “The regulators, government, parliament and the industry I think have not paid sufficient attention to this.”

Mr Henderson’s comments come after Water UK made an apology last month for the amount of sewage being poured into UK rivers, which was branded by sewage campaigners as “pathetic”.

It announced £10 billion of investment to modernise the “Victorian” sewage networks but it was soon rumoured that the public would be helping to pay through an increase in their bills.

Mr Henderson confirmed that part of the investment will be funded by water companies but “the large bulk will fall on customers”, adding that the government estimates that it will be £20 extra per year.

People across England have refused to pay their wastewater bills as they are demanding water companies to stop billing households while they do little to remove sewage.

Angler Matt Marlow, from Stockport, Greater Manchester. said he stopped paying his water bill entirely to United Utilities about six months ago because the water company is “trying to charge me for something I’m not getting”.

He said he will “never pay” towards the sewer upgrade plan because “they’re all rubbing their hands together while we’re swimming in s***”.

Sewage activist Caroline Quaife who joined environmental group Surfers Against Sewage nationwide protest in the Staffordshire location on Saturday (21 May) told NationalWorld “it is outrageous that water firms should take £60 billion in profits then ask for £10 billion from the public purse.”

She added: “It makes me really angry. And it makes me angry that we have a government that thinks that’s okay.”

Mark Barrow, an underwater filmmaker at Beneath British Waters, who films sewage in UK rivers, added that he is not “prepared to pay for a huge increase” for a problem created by water companies “so they should sort it”.