Campaigns

28 October 2020

Your support needed to change the law on dumping raw sewage.

The backbench MP, Philip Dunne, is proposing new laws to clean up our rivers, and he needs your help.  On 13th November, Dunne will be leading a debate on his own Bill, the Sewage (Inland Waters) Bill.  The purpose of the Bill is to place a duty on water companies to ensure that untreated sewage is not discharged into rivers and other inland waters.  In other words, to get them to clean up their act. 

For this Bill to have any chance of success, we need as many MPs as possible to support it.  This is where, as anglers, we can help.  Through the Anglers Against Pollution Campaign, we need you to write to your MP and call on them to support the Bill by being in the House on 13th November and voting for it. 

You can do that simply by visiting https://anglingtrust.net/sewage-inland-waters-bill/ and then clicking on the “Write to your MP” button. 

In 2019, raw sewage was discharged into rivers across England and Wales for over 1.5 million hours, compromising these vital habitats for wildlife and endangering the health of people who use our rivers for recreation. 

Philip Dunne MP, who is also chairman of the Environmental Audit Committee, said:  

“Our rivers are a vital part of our natural heritage. It is right the Government has committed to restoring at least three quarters of our waters to their natural state.  

“But it is clear from last week’s latest assessment from the Environment Agency that we are a long way from achieving that, with fewer than one in six of our rivers in good health. This threatens the aquatic life and iconic species that rely on these precious habitats, such as freshwater fish, kingfishers, otters and dippers.   

“The discharge of untreated sewage is a major part of the problem, entering our rivers from the very treatment works whose purpose is to clean it up. Our regulations and investment have not kept pace with changes in behaviour and pressure from development, so now pollutants enter our rivers untreated, with the perpetrators licensed to spill.” 

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