Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram said he wants to “kickstart” the journey towards a discharge free River Mersey after signing a deal with United Utilities to tackle the water’s pollution. The Liverpool City Region Mayor has struck an agreement with United Utilities and the Mersey Rivers Trust to help deliver the Government’s national water quality goals and accelerate the clean-up of the river.
A Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the parties
The agreement, in the form of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), builds on the government’s plan for the water sector, aligning with national efforts to tackle pollution and reduce storm overflows. It commits the city region, water company and rivers trust to a joint five-year action plan aimed at reducing sewage discharges, improving water quality, and boosting biodiversity across the Liverpool City Region.
Mayor Rotheram, who has previously outlined a desire to reach a discharge-free Mersey by 2030, said the signing of the deal was “the start of a journey” for the 69-mile stretch of water. He said:
It’s going to kickstart something, it’s not a panacea in itself, it’s not going to wave a magic wand and all of a sudden everyone who is discharging into the river is going to say ‘oh better stop because Steve Rotheram and United Utilities have signed an MOU’ but it is a step in the right direction and will start to focus minds.
I spoke to Michael Heseltine about this some years ago and he said this is the sort of thing you need to do because those agreements, while sometimes difficult to enforce, focus the minds of those involved in water and regulatory regimes around it.
Metro mayor: cleaning up generations of pollution
The Metro Mayor added how focus would now turn to tidying up what had been dumped in the river “for generations” in a bid to get the river to recover from generations of pollution.
He added how the nature of the river, as a tidal range, would always carry silt – meaning the brown colour we see would remain – rather than “blue lagoons” and highlighted the increasing issue of microplastics. Mr Rotheram also said there was now a strong role United Utilities had to play having got them round the table for an agreement.
He said:
It hasn’t been an easy process to get where we are today. People will be concerned about their environment and their bills, I can’t affect what United Utilities do with their bills but what we want to do is to ensure that some of that money is spent in the Liverpool City Region to tackle the infrastructure issues that we know are prevalent.
We have 80% of our network which is a combined sewer, everything gets mixed before it gets to the treatment plant.
We could do with separating those two things and if we can do that, we can get to our ambitions very quickly but it will take billions of pounds and that’s for United Utilities to work towards finding with all the support we can find.
United Utilities ‘cares deeply about the Mersey’
Louise Beardmore, chief executive of United Utilities, said:
We have an ambitious plan, including the largest ever investment programme in water and wastewater infrastructure in a century, to transform the region’s waterways and enable the step change people want to see.
Our investment to significantly reduce discharges from storm overflows and improve water quality builds on our legacy partnership and founding membership of the Mersey Basin Campaign, which showed what we can achieve when we work together.
We care deeply about the River Mersey and will continue to do everything we can to ensure its healthy future. That’s why we are fully committed to working in partnership with the Liverpool City Region and Mersey Rivers Trust to deliver transformational improvements that support the Government’s goals for the water sector.
The Mersey Rivers Trust hopes to deliver water quality goals
John Sanders, co-director of the Mersey Rivers Trust, added:
The Mersey Rivers Trust is proud to be part of this pioneering partnership. Over the years, we’ve seen the Mersey recover from one of the most polluted rivers in Europe to a symbol of environmental regeneration.
This agreement ensures that we continue to build on that success, helping to deliver the government’s national water quality goals while making our local rivers cleaner and more accessible for everyone.
