Sewage pollution in UK rivers has become a major problem, but it isn’t always that visible, with outlets tucked away from view.
Now, experts have imagined what our rivers might look like if the crisis isn’t addressed, using AI-generated images of our beloved watercourses.
Rotting fish bob in the Thames below Westminster Bridge, while algae and litter clog the Wye, the Ouse, the Eden and the Severn.
These are, of course, illustrations and not data-driven diagrams of what our rivers will look like in future. But the shock factor is intended to make people think about what we’re doing to our environment.
Water companies hit back, saying the images are fictional and would never happen, due to billions of pounds in investment to manage sewage better.
But Utility Bidder, a comparison firm for services like water and electricity, say in their Polluted Waters Report 2024 that our sewage issues are getting worse, with the number of recorded spills increasing nationwide.
Rising sea levels and more wet weather from climate change are set to put even more strain on the sewage network, so they created the AI images using Midjourney and Adobe Firefly to show what they claim we might face one day without effective action.
‘Heavy downpours and prolonged periods of rain can overwhelm the UK’s drainage infrastructure, especially in the wetter months,’ they said in the report.
‘This can lead to unpleasant consequences, with sewers spilling over and leaking into our otherwise pristine rivers. Sewage pollution can be incredibly damaging to wildlife and the natural environment and pose a health risk to nearby humans and their pets.’
To make the images, they used real photos of the rivers as a base and then asked AI to edit them to show a polluted river, green algae, plastic waste, and dead fish, blending the two images together in Photoshop.
A spokesperson for Severn Trent water company hit out at the AI images saying they were ‘fictional with no basis in reality’.
They said that ‘misleading content such as this does nothing but spread false information and cause unnecessary concern among the public’ and said they were working hard to invest and reduce sewage spills including £250 million of investment in Worcestershire alone on improving 134 storm overflows, ‘investing more and progressing faster than any other water company’.
‘By 2030, our operations will be responsible for c2% of reasons for rivers not meeting good ecological status which is ahead of government targets and we’re leading the way in the UK,’ they added.
Thames Water said they were also upgrading their capabilities, with the £4.5 billion Tideway Tunnel ‘super sewer’ and other investments set to ‘capture 95% of the volume of untreated sewage currently entering the tidal Thames in a typical year’.
A spokesperson said: ‘Our region experienced the wettest winter since records began this year, resulting in exceptionally high groundwater and river levels. This has at times overwhelmed our sewer system and has led to discharges into rivers.
‘We know how much people enjoy and appreciate rivers, and we are committed to seeing waterways thrive, but we can’t do it alone. Farming, industry, road runoff, wildlife and increasingly extreme weather also play a role in river health.’
The most well-known reason is that it is discharged via storm overflows called CSOs: combined sewer overflows.
These are overflow valves which are designed to let sewage out into rivers during very heavy rainfall.
If this didn’t happen, there would be a risk of pipes getting so overwhelmed that sewage backed up again into people’s homes, which would itself be controversial (to say the least).
But rather than only being used in exceptional rainfall, they have come to be relied on too much across the country.
Water pollution can also enter rivers via misconnections, where faulty plumbing work connects toilets and showers directly to watercourses rather than sewers where it would be taken to treatment works.
A Water UK spokesperson said: ‘No sewage spill is ever acceptable and water companies have proposed investing £11 billion – tripling current levels – to end sewage entering our rivers and seas. Ofwat needs to approve these plans in full.’
The government’s Discharge Reduction Plan says that by 2025, water companies will have reduced storm overflow discharges from 2020 levels by around 25%, as part of a a mandatory £60bn investment programme.
If AI rivers don’t float your boat, we went to see a real river where sanitary towels and wet wipes are already pouring in every day: the River Brent in west London, which is receiving all the waste water and sewage from dozens of homes due to misconnections thought to have been there since initial construction.
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