East Sussex politicians say government's plan to tackle sewage dumps is 'too little, too late'

Data released by the Environment Agency showed Lewes to have the second highest number of sewage spills in the entire Southern Water area during 2022.

The research showed Southern Water discharged sewage into waterways 16,668 times in 2022 – lasting a total of 146,819 hours.

In response to this issue, the government announced its new Plan For Water policy, which ministers say will transform our management of the water system, deliver cleaner water for nature and people, and secure a plentiful water supply.

However, members of the Lewes Green Party believe the policy is “much use as a wet wipe in a swimming pool”.

Emily O’Brien, Green Party national spokesperson, said: “The government’s new ‘plan for water’ is too little too late and too lame, including a bunch of pre-existing announcements that are about as much use as a wet wipe in a swimming pool.”

“In my ward, Southern Water's sewage works in Ringmer went from 895 hours of untreated discharge in 2021 to an eye-watering 968 hours last year. Straight into Glynde Reach, one of the most polluted rivers in Sussex.”

The Environment Agency figures showed the Lewes Ham Lane pumping station released sewage into the R|iver Ouse 146 times last year, lasting a total of 2,419 hours.

Despite these recent statistics, the government say they made huge progress with water last year.

According to the Conservatives, 93% of bathing waters were classified as ‘good’ or ‘excellent’ in 2022, up from 76% in 2010. Supply interruptions to customers have decreased five-fold and leakage has been cut by a third since privatisation.

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Tory MP for Lewes Maria Caulfield highlighted to SussexWorld the new engineering solutions being implemented by the £56 billion Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan, which she claims will help reduce the amount of rainfall entering the overflow system, thereby reducing the number of times systems reach capacity and discharges happen.

Ms Caulfield said: “From retaining grass soakaways on properties to the use of water butts and not flushing wet wipes that clog up our drains all helps to ensure our sewage system can cope with rainfall so that outflows remain limited.

"These overflows, which discharge out to sea when our sewage system is at capacity, have been in place since Victorian times and it is only recently, since the Government introduced new laws to monitor their use, that we all realise how often they are used.

“Most of the sewage discharge systems locally are a dual system, meaning they collect both sewage and rainfall. It is the rainfall element that causes the system to fill up, with sewage being only a tiny percent. Sewage on its own would rarely cause the need for overflows to be used. With the heavy amount of rainfall in recent days we have seen more discharges than usual.”

Ms Caulfield said the government were told by Southern Water that work decouple to sewage system from rainfall will start imminently and will involve digging up every road across Sussex to replace the dual system currently in place.

Water companies such as Southern Water are also investing £3.1 billion to deliver the 800 storm overflow improvements across England by 2025.