The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has produced a damning report on the failure of local authorities to manage their sewage treatment facilities correctly and to prevent the pollution of rivers and estuary and coastal waters. Excessive development, inadequate controls and investment, along with poor staff training, have all contributed to this unacceptable situation. The absence of direct accountability when public officials fail to take their legal obligations seriously is a matter of concern.
When the EPA devotes much of its latest report to reminding local authorities of their legal obligations to protect water quality, something is seriously wrong. Especially when officials were advised of those same requirements in previous years. Local authorities have become such established offenders in this area, however, that admonitions appear to have little effect. And prosecutions are extremely rare.
After the farming community, local authorities qualify as our main water polluters. And while large sums of public money have been invested in sewage treatment works during the past decade, the situation is still bad and it has actually worsened where small towns and villages are concerned. Only 20 per cent of small towns treat their sewage to acceptable standards. This rises to almost 40 per cent for larger towns. And in spite of legal requirements to provide secondary treatment for sewage, 10 major centres of population are still lacking such facilities.
The Government must take responsibility for some of this situation. Local authorities are constrained in their activities by the amount of money they receive. Contributions from central government have failed to keep pace with their needs. Apart from infrastructural expenditure, however, it is clear that local authorities have not given sufficient priority to their administrative obligations.
Even where treatment plants have been provided, their management has been "a significant difficulty" for local authorities, according to the EPA. In its report for 2004/2005, local authority staff were found to be inadequately trained and record keeping was poor.
Raw sewage is being pumped into many rivers and estuaries because treatment plants are unable to cope with the level of development taking place. There is a need for better planning, increased investment and quality control. In particular, there is a need for a change in the official mindset and for the introduction of a rigorous system of accountability within local government. Little will change until individuals are made responsible for gross breaches of the law and become liable to prosecution.