Water chief blames wild swimmers for highlighting sewage scandal

Fury as water chief blames wild swimmers and canoeists for highlighting scandal of sewage being pumped into rivers

• Water UK boss David Henderson said there has been an explosion in swimming
• Lord Cromwell criticised him, saying: ‘Surely that isn’t the problem at all’

A water industry boss sparked fury last night after he blamed wild swimmers and canoeists for shining a spotlight on the scandal of sewage being pumped into rivers.

David Henderson, chief executive officer of industry lobby group Water UK, claimed the issue of gallons of raw sewage being spewed out on a daily basis became such a hot topic only because more people had taken up water pursuits such as cold-water swimming.

‘We didn’t really keep up with how people now expect the environment to be able to be used,’ he told a House of Lords committee last week, adding: ‘There has been an explosion in open-water swimming, cold-water swimming, use of canoes and paddlers in reservoirs and other waterways. And in order for that to be done as much as people want, there needs to be less waste going into the rivers and into other waterways.’

Committee member Lord Cromwell criticised Mr Henderson, telling the water boss: ‘Surely that isn’t the problem at all.

‘It’s not that people want to swim in the rivers or use the water in different ways, it is that the water is being polluted by sewage overflows which haven’t been sufficiently controlled.’

David Henderson, chief executive officer of industry lobby group Water UK, claimed the issue of raw sewage being spewed out became such a hot topic only because more people had taken up water pursuits such as cold-water swimming

Singer Feargal Sharkey, a prominent clean-up campaigner, told The Mail on Sunday that sewage pollution ‘has absolutely nothing to do with wild swimmers or anybody else’.

‘The water industry continues its fatal act of self-denial, blaming the general public and wild swimmers for their own incompetence. This will not and will never work.’

Lizzie Carr, founder of clean water charity Planet Patrol, said: ‘Targeting water users – the very people who have helped bring attention to the abysmal state of our waterways – and blaming them for raising fears about poor water quality both on human and ecological health is outrageous . . . Our last water quality report evaluated 1,229 citizen science readings, tested at 48 sites, and showed that all sites but one failed to meet the acceptable criteria for five pollutants tested.’

Water UK made a grovelling apology last month for sewage spills after admitting that the public was ‘right to be upset about the current quality of our rivers and beaches’.

It announced £10 billion of investment to modernise sewers. But Mr Henderson admitted last week that most of the costs will be paid for by customers through higher bills.

Members of Sturry and Broad Oak Residents’ Association in Kent were said to be ‘extremely disturbed’ by pollution readings last year

Last year there were more than 389,000 discharges of untreated sewage into UK rivers.

Anglian Water was hit with a £2.6 million fine in April for discharging sewage equivalent to three Olympic-sized swimming pools into the North Sea.

When contacted for comment, Mr Henderson said: ‘As I told the committee, the public are categorically not to blame for the problems in rivers and the industry has apologised for not acting fast enough.’

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