Sir Steve Redgrave demands end to River Thames sewage 'pollution for profit'

Gold-medal winning Olympian Sir Steve Redgrave has called on the Government to take action to tackle the ‘catastrophe’ of River Thames sewage pollution.

In a letter to Environment Secretary Steve Reed, the Marlow rowing icon called for urgent intervention to tackle ‘pollution for profit’ undertaken by water companies.

Thames Water drew scrutiny in the letter, with Sir Steve urging the Government to ‘take a grip’ of the company to ‘clean up their infrastructure’.  

He said: “This is not just about rowing. It’s about all river users' public health. It’s about our environment.

“It’s about the future of one of the world’s most iconic rivers. I won’t sit quietly while this catastrophe continues.”

Pollution in the Marlow to Windsor stretch of the Thames and its tributaries has been strongly criticised by residents and water-users alike.

Cookham-based TV environmentalist Steve Backshall joined calls to clean up the river last year, branding the river near Thames Water’s Little Marlow sewage works as ‘toxic’.

Sir Steve’s letter to the Government comes as thousands of young athletes are set to take to the Thames in the annual Head of the River Race rowing competition in London.

“Rowers are not politicians or a corporate lobbyist, just people who love the river and are worried about its future,” Sir Steve said in the letter.  

"The Thames is in trouble. We regularly see and smell the pollution and it affects us directly. It covers the hulls of our boats and at times we even get sick from the water."

Thames Water is permitted to discharge sewage into rivers through combined sewer overflows (CSOs) when there is an imminent risk a treatment works could flood.

Though the company was issued a £56million fine for failing to meet key targets in tackling pollution and leaks by the industry watchdog Ofwat in October.

River Action UK, which campaigns for cleaner waterways across the country, has issued instructions for river safety in the wake of sewage pollution warnings.

But the charity’s head of communities Erica Popplewell said, ‘guidance alone is not enough’.

“We need the Government to take decisive action to clean up the UK’s polluted rivers, and Thames Water must be stopped from polluting for profit,” Ms Popplewell said.

A Thames Water spokesperson said £1.8billion was being invested to improve river health in the London area and the company was upgrading 250 sites to reduce CSO discharges.

In addition, The Tideway Tunnel is expected to capture 95 per cent of untreated sewage in the tidal Thames when completed later this year.

The spokesperson added: “We are committed to seeing waterways thrive, but we can’t do it alone; increasingly extreme weather is also playing a role in river health.” 

A spokesperson for the government said it had, ‘inherited a water system where for too long water companies have pumped record levels of sewage into our waterways’.

The Government had passed a ‘landmark’ Water Act to bring tougher criminal charges against polluters and £100billion of private sector funding had been allocated for new infrastructure, the spokesperson said.