Anglian Water vow to reduce sewage spills after large increase in incidents

Anglian Water have vowed to reduce the amount of sewage spillages in our region – after the number increased by 97 per cent in just 12 months.

Findings from the Environment Agency showed there were 31,632 cases in 2023- up from 16,082 incidents the previous year.

Anglian Water have said wet weather at the end of 2023 contributed to the problem – with last year being described as a ‘particularly wet year’ with 2022 described as an ‘unusually dry year.’

Labour’s Shadow Environment Secretary, Steve Reed MP called for a ban on bonuses for Anglian Water bosses after the figures were released by the Environment Agency.

An Anglian Water spokesperson said they would not comment on political comments, but said: “We are disappointed to see our spill numbers have increased this year. However we are confident that investments we’ve been making to reduce spills have moved the dial in the right direction and spills would have been considerably higher without it.

“It is important to acknowledge the exceptionally wet weather we had late last year, which meant that 70% of our spills were in Q4 alone and in stark comparison to the extremely dry year in 2021, as climate change continues to result in more extreme weather events.”

Earlier this year, Anglian Water announced a £50 million fast-tracked investment to create a ‘spills taskforce’ which will tackle storm spills across the region, funded by their shareholders.

This is in addition to a proposed £1 billion of investment from 2025, subject to approval by Ofwat – including nearly £37 million in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough alone.

More than £1.3 million is being spent across Cambridgeshire, including in Peterborough, to install additional monitors across the sewer network, and more than £20 million is being spent to increase treatment capacity to cater for population growth in Peterborough, Doddington, Manea and Melbourn.

Earlier this week, Anglian Water ruled out a hosepipe ban for the region, following months of wet weather – although they also said they would have had capacity to rule out restrictions if the rain had not fallen in such large amounts this year.