Massive Amounts Of Raw Sewage Dumped In Thames For Four Straight Years

[hatrack]

"Raw sewage has been pumped into the Thames in London every month for the last four years, in far greater quantities than the government has previously admitted, according to new figures. Although Thames water has spent £1bn on improvements and claimed that the capital's river is the cleanest metropolitan river in Europe, the figures show that 240 million cubic metres of raw sewage have been emptied into the Thames since January 2001.

Although the Thames discharges breach European directives on urban waste water treatment, the Department for Environment has shelved plans to spend £1.5bn building a 22-mile tunnel to take overflow sewage from central London to sewage works at the mouth of the Thames.

Mike Tuffrey, the Liberal Democrat environment spokesman on the London Assembly, said: "These figures are an absolute disgrace. So much sewage being pumped into the Thames is bad for the environment, bad for human health and bad for the image of both the Thames and London. The dumping of raw sewage into the Thames is something that happened in the Victorian era. It certainly should not be happening in the 21st century in one of the most developed capital cities in the world. "There must be no more discussion, delay or dithering on building this interceptor tunnel. The longer ministers drag their feet in making the inevitable decision to build the tunnel, the more this will ultimately cost the taxpayer to build and more raw sewage will be pumped into the Thames."

EDIT

In a Commons written answer last week the government revealed that every month since January 2001 large quantities of raw sewage have been pumped into the tidal Thames in London from the five main pumping stations. Last month was one of the lowest for discharges, when 304,000 cubic metres was pumped into the river - but November 2004 was one of the driest months for four years. In August, the month of the big fish kill, the total was 4.94 million cubic metres. The condition of the Thames was so bad that rowers were warned of the health hazard."

EDIT

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1377306,00.html