In a debate on untreated sewage going into our rivers, Labour and Liberal Democrat Councillors rejected a call by the Green Party to bring polluting water companies into Public Ownership.
The Labour motion came following months of revelations about the scale of raw sewage dumping by water companies in UK rivers but only asked the government to “clean up our rivers and end the sewage scandal.”
Councillor Marieanne Elliot who proposed the Green Party amendment said,
“Private Water Companies have paid out £57bn to shareholders over the last 30 years. That is money that could have been spent wisely on investment in infrastructure that could have prevented this trashing of our environment.
“Water privatisation has been a failed experiment. A service as vital as water and sewerage needs to be run by the public and for the public good. Shareholder payouts and CEO bonuses need to be halted with immediate effect where water quality is substandard.”
“Pollution has serious local impacts, such as the sewage discharges in Sheffield by the Lady’s Bridge into the River Don. This discharges threaten projects to support reintroducing salmon and trout to our rivers.
“We need to make polluters pay by committing to resourcing the Environment Agency to effectively monitor and guide the water industry and agriculture, with a much more aggressive and focussed approach to enforcement and prosecution.”
Green Party Councillors proposed an amendment to the motion to bring water back into public ownership as soon as practicable to stop sewage discharges and cut bills. This amendment was rejected by Labour and Lib Dem politicians,
Councillor Elliot said, following the vote,
“I am very disappointed that the Lib Dems and Labour Councillors backed water companies and their shareholders over investment in infrastructure. To address a problem you first have to acknowledge what that problem is and they have failed to do that.”
In the text of the amendment, Green councillors said:
- Thousands of voluntary River Rangers, Citizen Scientists and active swimmers, kayakers, anglers and walkers, armed with the invaluable data supplied by the Rivers Trust and other researchers, are contributing to monitoring water quality;
- A rising tide of sewage discharges, such as the discharges in Sheffield by the Lady’s Bridge into the River Don, threaten projects to support reintroducing salmon and trout to our rivers
- Water privatisation has been a failed experiment, and that a service as vital as water and sewerage needs to be run by the public and for the public good
- Shareholder pay-outs and CEO bonuses need to be halted with immediate effect where water quality is substandard;
- Government should make polluters pay by committing to resourcing the Environment Agency to effectively monitor and guide the water industry and agriculture, including a restoration of staff resources and a much more aggressive and focussed approach to enforcement and prosecution, working closely with voluntary organisations;
- And bring water back into public ownership as soon as practicable to stop sewage discharges and cut bills;
See the report in Bright Green
