Too often, I get reminders that the water near Uphill Slipway has been classified as ‘poor’. They’re usually from ‘Surfers Against Sewage’, although I doubt any of us has ever seen anyone surfing a breaker near the marina! But they’re still making an important point because, after bouts of heavy rain, Wessex Water’s storm water overflow at Black Rock begins discharging. This flows out to Uphill’s Slipway and pollutes the water and, while it isn’t dangerous, it’s hardly wonderful either.
So how do we fix it? Well, there’s a new Bill going through Parliament that’s just got Government backing, which is a good start. This Bill places a duty on water companies to ensure that untreated muck is not discharged into rivers and other inland waters. They’ll have to reduce their reliance on overflows like the one at Black Rock steadily, and report publicly on how often they’re used, as well as how seriously they affect the water quality each time they are. It means that you and I will know what’s happening all the time, and give us all ammunition to use if improvements don’t happen fast enough too.
To be fair, a lot of water firms are up for changing things too. I’ve just published ‘Power To The People’, a Government-commissioned review of how we can improve consumer choice and competition so jobs and businesses can bounce back faster and more dynamically now Brexit is done and once the pandemic is over. While I was researching it, it became pretty clear that some of the EU rules force water companies to solve water quality problems by building expensive, high-carbon water treatment plants when it would be quicker, greener and cheaper for our water bills if they were allowed to strike upstream deals with farmers and landowners to cut runoff and stop pollution being washed into our waterways in the first place instead.
In other words, the water firms reckone they could deliver the same or better results with miles less red tape, if they’re given a chance to get on with it. As you can imagine, it looks like a win-win answer. So, with the Government backing this new Bill and also welcoming my new ‘Power To The People’ report, it looks like the odds are getting better that we will see progress in this area. It may not produce any surfers near Uphill, but it could mean a better place for us all to live, sail and walk, and for wildlife to live and thrive, from now on. I’ll keep you all updated!