41 Hour Sewage Discharge in the River Deben

Last week, Anglian Water discharged 41 HOURS of sewage into the River Deben, between the waterfront and Melton.

Water testing by Deben Climate Centre and Ruth Leach showed that as a result of the discharge, E.coli levels were 30 TIMES the recommended levels, and therefore not safe for bathing. Water levels have now returned to normal (thanks to Ruth for testing each day).

This shouldn’t be allowed to happen. Last week, after the discharge, I wrote to Anglian Water asking them to commit to carrying out regular, publicly available water quality testing following discharge events, and to alert the public and water users promptly in future.

We need to urgently invest in infrastructure to make sure these - frankly dickensian water quality practices - are a thing of the past.