March 20th, 2025.



Lewes District Council’s (LDC) Cabinet members are set to consider the recommendations of the council’s Southern Water Scrutiny Panel today, Thursday the 20th of March, following its landmark investigation into local sewage pollution.

‘Our rivers and seas are awash with sewage,’ said Green Cllr Ezra Cohen, deputy chair of the panel. ‘In my home in Seaford, it’s become a running joke that we get a sewage discharge alert almost daily, sometimes multiple times a day. My 8-year-old daughter runs to tell me that there’s been another when she sees my phone flash on with a new alert. I have to check every time I take the kids to the beach whether it’s safe for them to paddle, and more often than not, sewage was dumped too recently for me to let them play in the water.’

And it’s getting worse. The most recent Environment Agency (EA) data from 2023 showed Southern Water released raw sewage for 317,285 hours, well over double the previous year. This follows the company’s pollution incident reduction programme which was supposed to cut incidents in 2023.

We often hear that this country’s sewage problems are due to a Victorian sewer system, but the LDC panel’s report reveals that Southern Water had no idea how much of their network was Victorian. It turns out just 8% dates back to that era, which ironically is slightly lower than the 8.26% constructed since 2001. Most of the Southern Water sewer network was constructed between the 1960s and water privatisation in 1989, and research shows that there has been virtually no net shareholder investment in English water companies over the past 20 years.

Now Ofwat has granted the company a more than 50% increase in customer wastewater bills, a massive increase, but still well below the 91% hike Southern Water wanted. ‘Southern Water is seeking to make us pay to fix a problem created by its failing to sufficiently invest in infrastructure for decades, while paying out vast sums in dividends and loading the company with debt,’ said Green Cllr Paul Keene, chair of the LDC panel.

Worryingly, the panel reports that the problem is not even mainly due to illegal sewage dumping. An estimated 9 out of 10 sewage discharges, it reports, are considered legal, and conform with Southern Water’s EA permit conditions. So improving the company’s performance Star Rating won’t mean ending the majority of sewage discharges.

‘The more you look, the more you find that the entire water system, from the ownership model to the finances, from water regulation to enforcement, and from environmental and human protections to technological requirements, is dysfunctional and not fit for purpose’ said Cllr Cohen. The panel’s report is filled with shocking details. It’s analysis teases out how:

· Research has found that the financial viability of private water companies depends on being allowed to continue polluting the environment.

· The Environment Agency lacks the resources to conduct its own monitoring, relying instead on water company self-reporting.

· The water regulator Ofwat prioritises keeping private water companies afloat over using its existing enforcement tools and powers to issue fines.

· There are no requirements to filter micropollutants such as micro-plastics, forever chemicals, or pharmaceuticals, with growing evidence of widespread water contamination by medicines given to people and livestock.

· The Office of Environmental Protection believes that Defra and the EA may be misinterpreting the law governing wastewater permitting.

· Wastewater discharge permits do not require volumetric monitoring, despite the Environment Secretary being required by law to have a plan to reduce the volume of discharges from storm overflows.

· The government gave its new commission reviewing the water industry terms of reference preventing it from considering bringing the water industry back into public ownership, and requiring it to make recommendations which would prioritise economic growth rather than human and environmental health and wellbeing.

‘While Southern Water is directly responsible for most of the sewage going into local rivers and seas, it’s the laws, regulation, enforcement, structure and financing of the water industry which allow the problem to persist,’ said Cllr Cohen.

‘Green councillors are making sure that at Lewes District Council, we’re doing everything we can to lobby the Labour Government to make the reforms which will improve the situation,’ adds Cllr Emily O’Brien, LDC Cabinet member for Climate, Nature and Food Systems. ‘In the meantime, we’re engaging constructively with Southern Water to improve human and environmental health and wellbeing outcomes, and we’re redoubling our efforts to take the local actions we can to hold water companies to account, manage water better at source to relieve pressure on the sewage network, improve the water environment and to raise awareness of water quality issues in the district.’


Pictured: Lewes District Councillors Paul Keen and Ezra Cohen at Southern Water’s Sewage Treatment Works in Newhaven.