Communities along the River Thames are launching coordinated legal action against Thames Water, alleging that chronic sewage pollution is ruining their health, local environment, and livelihoods.
Legal Action Over 'Open Sewer' Conditions
Residents in 13 areas, including Hackney, Oxford, Richmond upon Thames, and Wokingham, are submitting formal statutory nuisance complaints to their local authorities. They are demanding urgent action and accountability from the water company, which they accuse of treating the iconic river like an open sewer.
The campaigners state that the problem is not limited to raw sewage discharges from storm overflows. They highlight that poorly treated effluent from Thames Water's own facilities is also a direct threat to public health. This legal move utilises section 79 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, which defines a statutory nuisance as an activity that unreasonably interferes with land use and is likely to injure health.
Failed Upgrades and Mounting Health Fears
The action follows revelations that Thames Water failed to complete promised upgrades to 98 of its most polluting treatment plants and pumping stations over the last five years. At the Newbury sewage treatment plant, which discharges into the protected River Kennet, raw sewage discharge hours skyrocketed by 240% between 2019 and 2024, from 482 to 1,630 hours.
The human cost of this pollution is becoming starkly clear. Campaigners cite the case of a 16-year-old rower from the Henley rowing club who contracted E coli after training on the river. His illness coincided with his GCSE exams, preventing him from revising and sitting some papers. In separate incidents, a kayaker in West Berkshire fell ill after capsizing, and five children became sick after playing in the Thames near Hurst Park in south-west London.
Citizen-led testing has revealed alarming contamination levels. Data obtained from Thames Water shows that treated effluent leaving the Henley plant contained E coli at levels 30 times higher than safe bathing water standards.
Regulatory Standoff and Public Anger
Despite its environmental failings, which recently resulted in a record £104 million fine from Ofwat, Thames Water is seeking to charge customers for the upgrades it did not complete. The company asked the regulator for permission to add £1.18 billion to customer bills over five years. Ofwat refused the full amount, allowing only £793 million and stating that bill-payers had already funded the work and any extra costs should be borne by the company's shareholders.
Laura Reineke, founder of the campaign group Friends of the Thames in Henley, said: "People here are fed up with living beside a river that’s being treated like an open sewer. We’ve submitted a nuisance complaint to our local authority because what Thames Water is doing is unacceptable."
Amy Fairman, head of campaigns at River Action, which is supporting the complaints, emphasised the legal duty now placed on councils. "Each local authority must investigate these complaints and, where statutory nuisance is found to exist, issue an abatement notice and take enforcement action. Councils now have a legal duty to act," she said.
With Thames Water on the brink of financial insolvency and ministers yet to intervene with special administration, communities are taking the law into their own hands to force a cleanup of their polluted river.
