ANGLIAN Water bosses have vowed to continue tackling “sewage overflows” throughout Southend and introduce “all-year round testing”.
Bosses at the firm made the pledge at the fourth water quality summit organised by Southend West MP Anna Firth.
It comes as Thorpe Bay lost its Blue Flag clean water accreditation last week, due to “dangerous levels of e-coli” being discovered.
Residents, activists, councillors and business owners were at Leigh Sailing Club, Old Leigh, to discuss ongoing sewage concerns on Friday.
They heard from six Anglian Water representatives, led by quality and environment director Dr Robin Price.
Cold water swimmer Daniella Boon, from Bluetits Southend, said: “The biggest outcome from today’s summit is that Anglian Water have agreed to test the water all year round, which is great because we swim in the sea all year round. This is a massive achievement and I’m feeling positive.”
Dr Price said he welcomed “scrutiny” from residents.
However, he warned: “We can’t fix all the problems, all the storm overflows and sewage on our own. We need to work with local authorities, communities, and wildlife groups.
“We all want the same thing and that’s what’s really important here.”
Dr Price revealed a real-time storm overflow map which will show swimmers and surfers whether it is “safe and clean” to swim. It will be released publicly in April.
Ms Firth hailed the summit “a huge success”.
She added: “We’ve got £104million of investment, the biggest amount of money going into Southend of anywhere in the region.
“We have to separate our sewage systems so that the foul water is going down one pipe, and all the rainwater is going down another.”
Network support technician Mark Lloyd said sewage spills would stop completely “when there’s no excess surface water, no pipe blockages caused by people flushing wet wipes and putting fat down their drains, and no one misconnecting pipes during construction work”.
Cold water swimmer Daniella Boon, from Bluetits Southend, said: “The biggest outcome from today’s summit is that Anglian Water have agreed to test the water all year round which is great because we swim in the sea all year round. This is a massive achievement and I’m feeling positive.”
The Environment Agency did not attend. However, Southend councillor Meg Davison, defended them, saying “they do good work”. Ms Firth the agency to “engage in the same responsible way Anglian Water does”.
Anglian Water promised to come back in three months' time for the next water summit to present everyone with more data that “will show things are improving”.
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