Water Minister Emma Hardy has acknowledged ongoing concerns about water quality as the Oxford vs Cambridge Boat Race takes place. She highlighted government action so far, including the Thames Tideway super sewer, but said more progress is needed. Report by Etemadil. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Well we're here to celebrate the boat race which is a fantastic national event,
00:04worldwide event, watched by everyone including me as a child with my mum. So
00:08we're here to celebrate that and talk about that but of course we're also
00:11talking about the state of our waterways and it has been the fact that sewage
00:16impact has impacted the race in the past. We have had situations last year where
00:20rowers became ill. We've also had advice that they shouldn't be throwing the cocks
00:25into the water at the end of the race today because of the state of the sewage
00:29pollution that they see. So we know that this is a problem. We've taken action
00:33already with the Water Act putting companies into special measures, banning
00:37bonuses for polluting water bosses, introducing criminal liability including
00:42up to two years imprisonment. So we've taken action immediately. Also the Thames
00:46Tideway which is the super sewer. Now that's going to take 95% of the sewage
00:51that would have ended up into the River Thames. That's going to be diverting that
00:55but of course there's a lot more to do and we know we need to go further
00:59and faster.