New Government measures to tackle sewage dumping scandal are a drop in the ocean

 In response to the Environment Secretary's announcement of the Government’s new ‘Plan for Water’, Legal Director of Good Law Project, Emma Dearnaley, said:
 

Overwhelming public outrage has finally forced the Government’s hand on the sewage scandal blighting our country.

But the reality is that the Government’s ‘new’ plan, some of which is repackaged from previous years, only aims to reduce the number of sewage spills by private water companies through storm overflows into our rivers and beaches by 10,000 per year - to a mere 290,000 a year based on recent figures. This is a drop in the ocean.

We need more robust and urgent action to bring the shocking practice of sewage dumping to an end if we are to protect our waters for generations to come. That is why Good Law Project is supporting a number of legal challenges to hold this Government and water companies to account over what has become one of the biggest environmental scandals of our times.