Basingstoke MP, Maria Miller, met with Richard Aylard, Director of Sustainability at Thames Water, to discuss the action Thames Water are taking to manage the River Loddon and tackle the issue of stormwater discharges.
Maria said: "The River Loddon is such an important part of our local environment; and for hundreds of years we have also relied on the river to take away our waste water too. Since the sewage works was built that waste water has been treated; and in the past 10 years In Basingstoke the focus has been on the use of cutting edge technology to reduce pollution in our treated water as much as possible. Every day the people who manage and operate our sewage works in Chineham carefully treat the waste water we all create. So, it is completely unacceptable that this work is then overshadowed by storm water being released untreated into the river. The Government has made important changes, now not only do water companies have to monitor storm water incidents, the new Environment Act brought in this year means for the first time water companies like Thames Water are required to have a plan to stop it happening in the first place.
“In 2021 Thames Water have reduced the number of storm water incidents to one in Basingstoke. Now we need to see plans in place to maintain this improvement.
“I was pleased to note that Thames Water have also recently announced £5 million funding to support capacity building for river catchment partnerships who play such an important part in monitoring the quality of our rivers locally.”