The Government has brought in new measures in the Environment Bill to tackle storm overflows with a new requirement for water companies to monitor the water quality impacts of their sewage discharges and publish the information.

Bathing water quality at four beaches in South West England is set to improve following the acceleration of a £1.6 million investment by South West Water.

Irish Water has appointed a contractor to build a new wastewater treatment plant for a milestone project which will see the discharge of raw sewage from Liscannor ended.

Southern Water has issued a statement apologising for the release of sewage in Margate during storms on Wednesday night last week.

New figures published by the Environment Agency have revealed that the ten water and wastewater companies in England and Wales discharged raw sewage into rivers in England more than 400,000 times for more than three million hours last year.

The Environment Agency has been widely criticised in the press for its failures to tackle water pollution in rivers in England following last week’s publication of data revealing that for the first time no river has achieved good chemical status and just 14% reached good ecological standard.

The Scottish Government has awarded Aqua Enviro a research contract to inform future policy to reduce the impact from private sewage discharges on bathing water quality.

Thames Water has extended its 14-week public consultation on the Thames Tunnel by almost a month to give people more opportunity to have their say.