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Wessex Water has been ordered to pay £11m over wastewater failures and told to spend it on improvements to reduce sewage spills and other measures.
Ofwat, the industry regulator for England and Wales, said that Wessex Water and its shareholders would fund a total enforcement package of £11m, none of which will be paid for by customers through bills.
The watchdog found that Wessex Water failed to operate, maintain and upgrade its wastewater network adequately to ensure that it could cope with the flows of sewage and wastewater.
The company, which this year increased its bills by an average of 20%, or £113, serves households across Bristol, Dorset and Somerset, as well as most of Wiltshire and parts of Gloucestershire and Hampshire.
The measures Wessex Water has been ordered to take include helping private landowners to seal their sewer pipes, reducing spills at specific storm overflows by bringing forward investment, installing additional monitoring equipment and helping customers to sustainably manage rainwater at their properties.
It is the sixth case in Ofwat’s “largest and most complex set of investigations” into all companies in the sector and their management of water treatment works and networks. The regulator has already this year imposed total penalties of more than £240m on Yorkshire Water, Thames Water, Northumbrian Water, Anglian Water and South West Water.
Lynn Parker, the senior director for enforcement at Ofwat, said: “Our investigation has found that Wessex Water failed to effectively operate, maintain and upgrade its wastewater assets, which meant there were spills from storm overflows when there should not have been.
“To their credit, the company has been one of the more proactive in investigating and rectifying the problems identified. However, there remain breaches which must be accounted for and corrected.
“We understand that the public wants to see transformative change. That is why we are prioritising this sector-wide investigation which has so far held five wastewater companies to account.”
Wessex Water has invested more than £150m since 2020 on upgrading storm overflows in its region, and has plans for the next five years to address many of the wastewater issues. However, Ofwat said there remained further measures that the company needed to take, and which the watchdog would continue to closely monitor.
In June, the government banned bonuses for water companies that failed to protect the environment from the worst pollution incidents, after widespread public outrage over the extent of sewage in Britain’s rivers and seas. The chief executive of Wessex Water, Ruth Jefferson, was among those blocked. She was in line to receive £4m in total bonuses for the last financial year.
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Water companies in England could face more, and automatic, fines for sewage dumping under new Environment Agency powers. Investigations into pollution can take years and fewer than 1% have resulted in a prosecution.
A Wessex Water spokesperson said: “We regret the impact our wastewater performance has had on customers and the environment.
“When the issues at our treatment sites were identified we were quick to fix them, but we do agree that there is much more to do – particularly in areas where groundwater enters the sewerage network and can result in overflows operating long after rainfall events.
“The proposals in this package will tackle the problem directly, sealing pipes on private land that we would not normally have powers over, as well as additional monitoring and initiatives like water butts and rain gardens to help customers treat rainwater as a valuable resource. This not only prevents pollution but also reduces the risk of sewer flooding for communities”.
