North Herefordshire MP welcomes government plans to tackle water pollution but wants more to be done
The government introduced a new water act on Monday (23 June) with new rules making it mandatory for water companies to prepare and publish Pollution Incident Reduction Plans (PIRPs)
North Herefordshire MP Ellie Chowns says the government still needs to do more to address water pollution issues.
The government introduced a new water act on Monday (23 June) with new rules making it mandatory for water companies to prepare and publish Pollution Incident Reduction Plans (PIRPs).
It will outline how companies will identify, respond to, and reduce sources of sewage pollution incidents in their network each year and include actions like increasing monitoring, investing in technology and infrastructure and carrying out awareness campaigns for customers.
Plans will need to be published by 1 April each year and report on the progress made since their previous plan, with the first plans to be published by 1 April 2026 and scrutinised by the Environment Agency.
Following the announcement Environment Secretary Steve Reed said: "The latest measure in the landmark Water Act will force water companies to publish specific plans on how they will tackle sewage pollution in local communities.
"This measure will increase transparency and accountability in the sector—focusing bosses’ minds on cleaning up our waterways for good."
Green MP Chowns says she would still like to see more being done and for the government to to also look at agricultural pollution when it comes to tackling water pollution.
“The public really care about these issues and really care about wanting our waterways, rivers, streams and oceans to be clean,” she said.
“We need to treat agricultural water pollution with the same kind of level of seriousness as we treat sewage pollution.
“You’ve got to look at these two things together, the government have done a bit like the water special measures bill and on water companies executive bonuses and I do welcome that but it is nowhere near enough.”
The government say the new legislative requirement will make it easier for the public to see what actions water companies are taking to reduce pollution in our waterways, and hold them accountable on their progress as they work to cut sewage spills by 45% by 2030.