Thames Water dumps sewage for at least 500 hours in Swindon

Thames Water dumped untreated sewage into different rivers and streams across Swindon for more than 360 hours in total.

The four parts of Swindon which experienced sewage discharges - according to the Thames Water live map - were in the Rodbourne, Wanborough, Purton and Broome areas.

The alert for the Wanborough discharge states that it fed into the Liden Brook. It began on December 30 at 9am and was still ongoing, according to the Thames Water map on January 5 - meaning a discharge time of at least 168 hours.

At that point sewage had been dumped for approximately 154 hours and 12 minutes, but could have been continued for longer.

The leak in Broome, which led into the River Ray, began on January 4 at 9.30pm and ended on January 5 at 5.30am. The sewage dump totalled 8 hours according to Thames Water.

Purton also experienced a discharge of sewage feeding in a tributary of the River Key. It began at 9pm on December 30 and ended on January 6 at 4.15pm. This discharge alone made up for 163 hours and 15 minutes of sewage being dumped.

The fourth was in Rodbourne, feeding into the River Ray and began at 6pm on January 4 and ended on January 6 at 5am. This makes up for 35 hours.

It means sewage has been discharged into Swindon's waterways for at least 528 hours since the start of the year.

The leader of Swindon Borough Council, Cllr Jim Robbins, slammed Thames Water.

He said: “I'm very disappointed that Thames Water are still dumping so much sewage in the waterways around the Borough."

“As a company they seem to be really struggling at the moment, they aren't stopping dumping the sewage, they aren't a good partner on highways works as a utility company and have been terrible on the Bus Boulevard project, and I'm regularly seeing reports that they are on the verge of running out of money.”

A Thames Water spokesperson said: “Taking action to improve the health of rivers is a key focus for us and we want to lead the way with our transparent approach to data."

The statement also stated that they are the only company to provide live alerts of untreated discharges.

The spokesperson also said: “Due to Storm Henk we have experienced higher than average long-term rainfall across London and the Thames Valley, the wettest period we’ve seen since we started publishing data on our map. Groundwater levels are also normal to exceptionally high for the time of the year. 

“We regard all discharges as unacceptable and are sorry to those affected by this. The overflows are designed to operate automatically when the sewer network is about to be overwhelmed which then releases diluted wastewater into rivers, rather than letting it back up into people’s homes. 

“We are working hard to make these discharges unnecessary and have published plans to upgrade over 250 of our sewage treatment works (STW) and sewers to treat the high volumes of incoming sewage and reduce the need for overflows during wet weather.” 

It comes a month after Thames Water hired a former British Gas executive as its new boss on a pay package worth up to £2.3 million to lead an overhaul.

Chris Weston, who worked at British Gas owner Centrica for 13 years and most recently headed up power specialist Aggreko, became the water firm’s chief executive on January 8.

He replaces interim co-chief executives Cathryn Ross and Alastair Cochran, who were parachuted into the role when former boss Sarah Bentley stepped down in June in the middle of a funding crisis that left the debt-laden firm on the brink of emergency nationalisation.