More than 730 of Southern Water’s assets were inspected by the Environment Agency.
Southern Water has been put to the sword by the Environment Agency – who are demanding that the water company make hundreds of changes.
The agency has carried out inspections on more than 730 of Southern Water’s wastewater assets, with widespread problems like poorly maintained screens and inadequate management of storm tanks.
But the greatest issue was around discharge sample and discharge points. In some cases, locations were either inaccessible, or staff did not know where they even were.
Southern Water has been told to take over 400 actions to comply with Environment Agency permits and any further action being considering. Of the Southern Water sites investigated, 68 per cent were found to be compliant with their permits.
Meanwhile, Southern Water has insisted that most of the required actions are minor breaches, and pointed towards improvements in the number of pollution incidents and drinking water quality.
Dawn Theaker, water industry regulation manager for the Environment Agency, said: “Environment Agency inspectors are working very hard visiting hundreds of sites, each a key part of the drinking water and sewage systems everyone relies upon.
“These health checks find issues Southern Water needs to fix because if things go wrong, the environment suffers. We will keep returning until faults are fixed, and we’ll keep coming back to make sure everything stays that way.”
Helen Wakeham, Environment Agency’s director for water, added: “In our role as regulators of the water industry, we are changing how we operate – with better data, our largest ever enforcement workforce and greater powers to do our job effectively.
“Inspections are a vital preventative measure, with our teams nationally issuing over 3,000 actions to water companies, including repairing sewage works and upgrading their infrastructure.
“Together, this will drive meaningful improvements in performance, hold persistent offenders to account and ultimately create a cleaner water environment.”
A Southern Water spokesperson said: “We continue to be open and transparent, and work closely with the Environment Agency and local stakeholders, including MPs, to meet the standards our customers and communities expect. That includes taking action whenever issues are identified.
“Pollution incidents have fallen by 30 per cent since 2023, reflecting the real progress we’re making on environmental performance. We’re investing more than £8.5bn between 2025 and 2030 to upgrade infrastructure for customers and to protect the environment.”
The News asked Southern Water if the cost of these changes could be absorbed by this year’s price increase, with the average bill for customers increasing by eight per cent his month. This question was not answered by their spokesperson.
