From: 152 Autumn 2020
Author: Susanna Pressel
Some of us have been concerned for a while about the cleanliness of the River Thames. Many people swim in the river where it flows through Port Meadow, especially this summer, when most other venues were closed. There has been a lot of publicity nationally about what our privatised water companies are getting up to at times and there is now a campaign to get “bathing water status” for all rivers and streams.
I’m glad to say that Oxfordshire County Council has agreed to ask the government to ban the dumping of raw sewage in our rivers and Oxford City Council will be discussing a similar motion on 5 October. All 3 political parties on the City Council (Labour LibDems and Greens) support it, so it should be agreed unanimously. This is the text of the motion:
This Council notes that the River Thames is chronically polluted with sewage. It is currently legal for Thames Water to dump raw, untreated sewage into the river at times of heavy rainfall when treatment works are overwhelmed. Its sewage works spilled untreated liquid waste into the upper Thames for over 17,000 hours during 2019.
Contact with polluted water can endanger people’s health; furthermore untreated sewage is bad for wildlife.
This Council asks Thames Water to immediately provide real time data of where and when sewage works are overflowing so that Oxford residents will know without delay about the risks of taking to the river to swim or participate in other water sports.
This Council calls on Thames Water to upgrade its sewage treatment works so they are fit for the 21st Century, and take account of a growing population and more extreme rainfall events due to climate change.
This Council notes that the Environment Agency has had its funding slashed since 2010 which has reduced its capacity to enforce environmental regulations. Environment Agency staff numbers have been cut and there has been a sharp decline in the amount of sampling carried out. Consequently pollution incidents have increased while the number of prosecutions have fallen.
This Council asks the Leader to write to urge the city’s Members of Parliament to demand adequate government funding for the Environment Agency and to do all they can to hold the agency to account for the important responsibility it has protecting our waterways, and to ask our MPs to support stricter environmental legislation for the UK after we leave the EU, and reject any proposals to use Brexit to weaken current environmental protection laws.
This Council requests Cabinet to adopt plans for an application for Designated Bathing Water Status for a stretch of the Thames in Oxford.
Designation by the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs would mean improved monitoring of water quality and better protection for the river from pollution. It will ensure Oxford residents have access to the information they need to be properly informed about the risks of enjoying our beautiful river Isis.