Opinion: Peterborough's Green Party wants to see water companies brought back under public ownership

​According to website 'Top of The Poops' there were 85 sewage dumps into waterways in the Peterborough constituency in 2022, and 387 in North West Cambridgeshire for the same period.

Their statistics state there were a total of 712 sewage dumps in the River Nene throughout the year, though the River Aire in Yorkshire suffered an eye watering 3,571.

The seven dumps at Hunstanton Beach in 2022 were seven too many, but imagine the stink kicked up in Morecambe where the total figure was 675! Sewage dumps are allowed, but only in exceptional circumstances.

Responding to data from the Environment Agency which shows a total of 301,091 sewage discharges nationwide in 2022, Green party co-leader Adrian Ramsey said: "It is nothing short of a national scandal that our rivers should be treated in this way.

"There is simply no excuse for raw sewage to be spilled into rivers 824 times a day - especially in a year when most of the country faced a drought.

“The situation we currently have across the country where water companies can, almost with impunity, dump sewage into our rivers, waterways and coastal waters cannot go on.

"The Green party wants to see a halt to all dividend payouts to shareholders until these companies sort their sewage out and ultimately for the water supply to be brought back into public ownership at the earliest practicable opportunity.

“After years of failing to invest adequately in infrastructure, the private monopoly model is broken with rivers facing an assault from all directions, made all the worse by inaction from the government.”

Perhaps an even bigger problem is the impact of farming on our waterways. Fertilisers and pesticides running off fields can have tragic effects, killing fish and making it difficult for any life to survive in the water.

Recent research by the World Animal Protection, Alliance, Save Our Antibiotics and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism has found two types of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in rivers adjacent to pig and chicken factory farms, as well as in the slurry from intensive dairy farms. This can be passed onto humans through drinking water, eating fish and by swimming in polluted waters.

They have said that this could be a contributor to the UK facing a health crisis whereby antibiotic resistance means that some diseases become untreatable.

In 2022 the government introduced a plan which states that "by 2035, water companies will have to improve all storm overflows discharging into or near every designated bathing water area; and improve 75% of overflows discharging into high priority nature sites. By 2050, this will apply to all remaining storm overflows covered by our targets, regardless of location."

Many people feel this is nowhere near enough, and even Environment Secretary Therese Coffey's announcement that there is to be a consultation on the banning of wet wipes, though welcomed, is a rehashed scheme having been proposed twice in the last five years.

The Green party believes people should come before profit. At present our government appears to believe gender neutral toilets, Nigel Farage's bank account, small boats and ULEZ schemes which will never be are more important than the state of our waterways.

Have they got their priorities back to front?