Last year the Government asked water companies to produce Action Plans for all their sewer overflows. Thames Water has published them on its website (they are not easy to understand). The main reason why they overflow is because they can’t cope when it rains – we have paved so much of London so there are too few places to soak it up. So the best solution is stopping the rain getting into the sewers using ‘natural drainage’ (e.g. creating areas of vegetation in the streets surrounding the sewer overflow).
However, it looks like the water company doesn’t intend to do much of this in London, the place where this is needed most. On its Action Plan only 6% of the options will use green solutions. The rest will be expensive concrete tanks which won’t have the multiple benefits that creating lots of vegetated areas would. Yet Thames Water and the Government say using green infrastructure should be a priority.
Send our legally binding request to find out if they have properly considered ‘nature based solutions’ across London. We fear that a lack of co-ordination means the authorities think it will be too complicated to create small green areas to soak up rain. London has seen green spaces 22 times the size of Hyde Park paved over. This has increased flood risk and river pollution. Reversing this will make the city more resilient.
We need you to scrutinise Thames Water’s decision making process – has it properly costed natural drainage options? Has it ruled them out because it thinks they are too complicated (this hasn’t stopped Philadelphia using green solutions to stop all its sewer overflows).
- East London
Mayesbrook Park, Dagenham: Information Request. See the sewer on Google Earth.
South Park Lake, Ilford: Information Request. See the sewer on Google Earth.
Olympic Park Wetlands. Despite the billions spent on the Games the number of spills into the Wetlands breaks the industry limit: Information Request. See the sewer on Google Earth.
- North West London
Wealdstone Brook, Daintry Road, Brent/Harrow. The river is regularly polluted and flows through Woodcock Park: Information Request. See the sewer on Google Earth.
Kenton Brook, Harrow. The sewer discharges into the river just upstream of Queensbury Rec: Information Request. See the sewer on Google Earth.
- North East London
The River Ching, Highams Park, Waltham Forest. Tucked away behind a row of houses, the sewer overflow is one of London’s most frequent spillers: Information Request. See the sewer on Google Earth.
Find out more about sewer overflows
