Exclusive:Scottish Water chief blasted for downplaying sewage on Scotland's beaches as faeces found in seawater
Labour MP Melanie Ward said Alex Plant was ‘out of touch’ after he said he didn’t want concerns over water quality to be ‘overblown’.
Scottish Water’s chief executive has been blasted for downplaying sewage on Scotland’s beaches after faeces was found in seawater.
Labour MP Melanie Ward said Alex Plant was “out of touch” after the Scottish Water boss said he did not want concerns over water quality to be “overblown”.
Burtisland and Kinghorn beaches were closed to swimmers in July - just after a heatwave - due to “faecal indicator organisms” in the water.
Ms Ward, the Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy MP, said it made some her constituents “violently sick” and caused businesses to lose money.
Ms Ward said: “I was staggered to read the out of touch comments of the chief executive of Scottish Water in relation to sewage polluting the beaches in Kinghorn and Burntisland.
“Of course my constituents and I are concerned; we’re talking about faeces in our seawater.
“It both made some of my constituents violently sick, and meant that local businesses lost money because both tourists and locals couldn’t use the beaches at the height of summer.
“These are failures of Scottish Water and the SNP Scottish Government, to whom the organisation is accountable.
“Rather than telling us not to be so concerned and that his organisation doesn’t know why our beaches are polluted, Scottish Water’s boss should focus on cleaning up our water – and the Scottish Government must act to ensure that this happens.”
A spokesperson for Scottish Water said: “There have been a number of elevated bathing water samples in Kinghorn and Burntisland this bathing season.
“In line with our established practice, we have carried out a root cause analysis into each of these and with our infrastructure working as it should and no issues found, Scottish Water assets have not contributed to these high results. We have liaised with SEPA throughout this process.
“As our chief executive, Alex Plant has explained previously there are a number are a number of factors which can contribute to pollution, and these are not always sewage-related.
“Our bathing water performance is improving year-on-year, with 87 per cent achieving good or excellent classification and only 2 per cent falling below sufficient.
“Over the past decade, we have invested £2.7 billion to improve and maintain Scotland’s public drainage system and infrastructure, contributing to the health of the country’s waterbodies.”
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “[A total of] 97 per cent of Scotland’s bathing waters currently achieve the bathing water quality standards, with 85 per cent being rated ‘good’ or ‘excellent’.
“We take poor water quality reports very seriously. Bathing water quality can be impacted by a range of bacterial sources following heavy rain and Sepa [Scottish Environmental Protection Agency] investigates incidents in order to seek overall improvements. We encourage everyone to make use of Sepa’s resources and information to help make an informed decision about where and when to bathe.
“Scottish Water is committing up to £500 million of investment to increase monitoring and reporting of overflows, reduce overflows, improve water quality and reduce sewer related debris in the environment, and overflows that are found to operate incorrectly or impact on water quality are prioritised for investment.”
Sepa was approached for comment.
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