“They’ve Taken Our Money”: Eastbourne’s MP Josh Babarinde Slams Southern Water After Double Bank Holiday Discharge
There was yet another operational incident at Eastbourne Wastewater Treatment Works on Bank Holiday Monday.
A temporary interruption to pumping operations at the site resulted in two discharges from the long sea outfall, located approximately 3.3km offshore.
The first discharge lasted 49 minutes and was stopped following the swift intervention of Southern Water’s on-call teams.
During investigations into the cause of the issue, a second shorter discharge of 13 minutes occurred.
By Tuesday morning, the treatment process was operating normally, and the site remained under close monitoring by the operational teams, both on site and remotely through the control centre, while investigations continue.
Southern Water says that it ‘recognises the sensitivity of this location and understands the concern that any discharge may cause to stakeholders and the local community.”
Our MP Josh Babarinde is more blunt.
He was talking about yet another incident at the start of the Bank Holiday Weekend.
Josh said: “Southern Water has failed over decades to invest in its capacity to treat more water. Instead so much of this cash was taken out in bonuses and dividends, and we’ve literally been left in the s**t.
“𝗧𝗵𝗲𝘆’𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗻 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗺𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘆 – 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗳𝗮𝗶𝗹𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗽𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆.
“Southern Water must rapidly accelerate investment expanding capacity at the treatment works way before the 2031 start date it has pencilled in.
“I believe it may be the case that Eastbourne needs to be served by a new, modern water treatment works altogether (I have consistently been told by experts that an overwhelmingly small and underground treatment facility like Poo Castle would NEVER be built
today because of all the problems they have).
“I’m also urging the Environment Agency to expand its criminal investigation into Southern Water’s failures at Eastbourne’s Water Treatment works to include this appalling incident.”
Back to Monday’s incident, and Southern Water has confirmed that The Environment Agency had been notified.
Southern Water’s Mike Russell said on Monday evening: “We are currently undertaking tidal modelling to assess any potential impact on bathing water quality and will share the findings as soon as they are available.
“Independent environmental specialists Adler & Allan are undertaking water quality sampling. Subject to the outcome of ongoing investigations and any initial findings, they may also carry out visual shoreline inspections. We will provide a further update once sampling results have been received and reviewed.
We appreciate that there is significant interest in environmental performance at Eastbourne and are committed to providing timely updates as more information becomes available.”
