Rejected petition Stop water companies illegally discharging sewage into our rivers
We are asking the UK government to:
- Better regulate sewage overflows to spot illegal sewage discharges by water companies
- Increase financial penalties for illegal dumping of sewage into our rivers
- Reinvest the money from the fines on upgrading sewerage infrastructure
More details
Our rivers are dying due to the dumping of untreated sewage by water companies. There have been 389,000 raw sewage discharges into our rivers in 2022 alone.
The New Environment Agency report says that 86% of UK rivers are in bad ecological health, with none passing chemical tests. 75% of UK rivers pose a serious risk to human health.
Water companies allow this to happen while paying their shareholders up to a billion pounds, and company CEOs take out millions of pounds in bonuses.
This petition was rejected
Why was this petition rejected?
It’s not clear what the petition is asking the UK Government or Parliament to do.
Petitions need to call on the Government or Parliament to take a specific action.
We understand that you're concerned about the release of sewage into water courses, but it's not clear if you want to see greater enforcement of existing offences, or if you want to see changes to when water companies can discharge sewage.
We have published the following petition, which you might like to sign:
Bring forward requirements for tackling sewage discharges into seas and rivers: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/635193
Require water companies to pay a rebate when untreated sewage is discharged: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/636517
If you want the Government to do something else you could start a new petition explaining clearly what you would like the Government or Parliament to do.
We only reject petitions that don’t meet the petition standards.