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Thames Water has revealed an 18% rise in pollution incidents during the first half of its financial year.
The country’s largest household supplier reported 257 category one – the most serious – to category 3 pollutions over the six months to the end of September.
It said that action to prevent these incidents was a core part of a three-year action plan to improve customer service that had been approved by its board.
Thames, which is looking to raise bills to help pay for much-needed investment in its ageing infrastructure, said: “Our turnaround plan addresses and mitigates the major drivers of pollutions across our wastewater network and sewage treatment works, including more proactive network cleaning and monitoring, and better prioritised reactive responses.
“Consequently, blockages, which cause over 40% of network pollutions, reduced by 5% in the first half of the year.
“As we look ahead, changes our regulators are making to the definition of pollutions are expected to increase the overall number of pollutions we report, even if there is no change in the impact we have on the environment.
“Notwithstanding this, we are committed to tackle the root causes of pollutions to meet the expectations of our communities and the needs of the environment.”
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