Brexit isn’t to blame for sewage dumping at sea

Facing inflation rates in excess of 18 per cent, a painful recession, and the prospect of electricity bills costing more than a mortgage, the UK’s troubles are mounting. But weighing on our minds almost as much is the fact that we seem to be pumping unprecedented levels of sewage into the sea.

This would be far from ideal – to say the least – at any time of year, but coming in the peak of August, just as families are out trying to enjoy the beach, the issue is understandably hitting home.

But while it’s true that there have been days of huge sewage discharge into the sea, there has also been an awful lot of garbage talked as to why it’s happening. This has all helped to fuel the social media narrative and keep the issue so near the top of the political agenda.

The most common framing of the debate on social media is that Conservative MPs ‘voted to allow raw sewage into our beautiful seas and rivers’, often accompanied with an unflattering picture of the local MP in question.

Such a framing should – but doesn’t – make us stop and think. If a vote is framed so that only a moustache-twirling silent movie villain would vote that way, shortly before tying a maiden to some train tracks, we should start to wonder whether there might be more to the issue than is being suggested.

It is true that Conservative MPs voted against an amendment that would have created a stricter duty on water companies to end dumping sewage into the sea – by 265 votes to 202 (with a relatively small Conservative rebellion). This didn’t change the law, it just kept it the same, with the reasoning behind objecting to the amendment being that it was badly drafted and would have created billions in new costs and dramatically hiked consumer bills.

At worst, Conservatives allowed the status quo to continue – they did not, with that vote, introduce some new law which was pro-sewage dumping. It would be insane for even the most pro-business Conservative party (which does not exactly describe the party’s current incarnation) to introduce such a bill, given that Conservative MPs represent far more coastal constituencies than any other party (around 100 Conservative MPs have coastal seats).

Another explanation being offered online is that the sewage is all the fault of Brexit. It has become an article of faith that disruption to shipping in 2021 led to difficulties in importing a chemical used in water treatment, Ferric Sulphate. This is true, but as a late-stage processing chemical it wouldn’t particularly affect the decision to dump at sea or not (and isn’t too difficult to get hold of elsewhere).

Labour’s understandable but opportunistic willingness to jump on dodgy stats has only spurred on the Brexit explanation. The party released figures obtained through a Freedom of Information request from the Environment Agency suggesting sewage dumping at sea had increased by 2,500 per cent between 2016 and 2021.

The figures do indeed show that – but the Environment Agency also disclosed that the number of sensors it had to detect such dumping in 2016 was 800, rising significantly to 12,000 in 2021. This is itself an increase of 1,400 per cent, suggesting that dumping at sea has probably increased, but far less dramatically than the dramatic figure suggests.

Sewage isn’t being dumped at sea because of moustache-twirling villains or the absence of a relatively easy-to-obtain chemical costing pennies. It is being dumped because the UK has chronically under-invested in its water and sewage infrastructure for decades.

When sewerage systems are overwhelmed – which often happens when rain follows a long hot spell that dries out the earth – water companies face the following choice: dumping sewage at sea, or allowing sewage to backflow into homes and businesses.

The solution to that isn’t to pass a law or reverse Brexit – it’s to invest billions in our creaking infrastructure. This less dramatic explanation does not let the government off the hook: it has been in charge for 12 years and had ample time to take action on this, either by forcing sclerotic water companies to invest, or else by reversing one of the most bizarre privatisations in UK history.

There is genuine political capital to be gained in pointing out the real problems. Instead, our parties have become as addicted to #numbers as our influencers – sidestepping trying to propose actual solutions to actual problems in favour of spewing out garbage figures and trash explanations.

Perhaps, given our public discourse has become such utter bilge, it should be no surprise that our seawater is so full of crap.