Southern Water to be challenged by Lewes councillors on sewage discharge issues

The water supplier came under scrutiny in August, after pollution warnings were put in place for dozens of beaches across the Sussex coastline as Southern Water discharged overflows into the sea to protect homes, schools, businesses and hospitals from flooding.

The company, along with 10 other water suppliers, was ordered by regulator Ofwat to return £150 million to their customers in the next financial year because of missed targets on areas such as water supply interruptions, pollution incidents and internal sewer flooding.

Councillors will have the chance to speak to Southern Water at it next council meeting, being the first local authority to hold the supplier to account for its actions.

Green Party councillors put a motion forward in May to ask Southern Water to clarify the impact of new housing developments on sewage discharge into local rivers and seas,

The Greens state that the current planning system assumes that there will be enough capacity to take on the new developments, so the question on the link between increasing raw sewage discharge and housing plans is not asked.

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Green Party councillor Emily O’Brien believes the meeting will be a ‘heated on’, after she accompanied more than 60 East Sussex people in a public protest in May.

Councillor O’Brien said: “The situation with untreated sewage being regularly discharged into our rivers and seas is an on-going disgrace. Southern Water has questions to answer, and I am delighted we have created the opportunity for our local councillors to be able to hold them to account.”