According to Le Figaro, flooding of the sewage system in Britain as a result of heavy rains led to the escape of sewage into the English Channel and pollution of beaches in the south of England and northern France. As the newspaper reports, a number of French politicians reacted sharply to this situation, accusing London of failing to meet its international environmental obligations. The fault lies in the archaic sewage system in the UK, the article explains.
British media have been warning bathers enjoying beaches in the south of England for a week that they may be swimming among the sewage, Le Figaro reports. Downpours that have hit the country over the past few days have flooded sewage systems, causing muddy water to rush into the English Channel and North Sea. At the height of summer, the Environment Agency declared dozens of beaches in England and Wales dangerous.
French MEPs expressed concern that pollution could also threaten holidaymakers on French beaches in Normandy and Brittany, demanding a reaction from the European Commission. “We fear negative consequences with regard to the quality of the sea waters we share with this country and at the same time with regard to marine biodiversity and the activities of fishermen and shellfish fishers,” Stéphanie Yon-Courtin, Nathalie Loiseau and Pierre Carleskind, chairman of the European Parliament’s fisheries commission, warned in a letter addressed to the European Commissioner for the Environment.
According to the publication, the case took a political-diplomatic turn last Friday when Xavier Bertrand, president of the Hauts-de-France region, criticised the “environmental disaster” that has been exacerbated by Brexit. In a letter addressed to the Secretary of State for Maritime Affairs, Hervé Berville, the former right-wing presidential candidate rebuked the United Kingdom for “exempting itself from European environmental standards”. The reference is to a legal provision in the UK that exempts water companies from the obligation to treat wastewater before it is discharged into the sea, the regional president emphasised.
As the newspaper explains, the root of the problem lies in the special drainage system that exists in ancient British cities, including London: dirty water intended for treatment runs through the same pipe as the collected rainwater. This is a legacy of Victorian-era infrastructure. Powerful floods, such as the one that happened this August, can quickly flood this system. In this case, excess water containing, among other things, human waste is discharged into rivers or the sea.
Three French Renaissance MEPs accuse the United Kingdom of reneging on its international environmental obligations for years. “If we make efforts on our part, they should make efforts on theirs too,” said Pierre Carleskind.
The European Commission said it would respond to French politicians’ complaints. “We expect the United Kingdom to fulfil all its legal obligations (…) to prevent any damage to health and the environment,” Environment Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius wrote on social media Friday.
British authorities, while not denying the problem, are looking for a solution, the publication notes. On Saturday, Environment Minister George Eustis announced that under a new plan, the government requires water companies to invest around £56bn to “revolutionise our sewerage networks”. He assured that the current British government was “the first to get serious about this issue”.
“The reason it has been rejected for decades by successive governments, both Labour and Conservative, is because we wanted to keep our water bills low, and that can be understood,” the minister explained.
However, this government plan has come under fierce criticism, writes Le Figaro. The Liberal Democrat opposition called it a “cruel joke” because of the blow it would deal to consumers. At the end of June, an independent report commissioned by the UK government showed that separating sewerage and stormwater systems would increase household bills by £569-£999 a year.
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