France, UK in dispute over dumping sewage waste into English Channel

In an open letter, the European Parliamentarians (MEPs) who belong to the political party of French President Emmanuel Macron (La République En Marche) slammed the United Kingdom over an environmental disaster after large spills of untreated sewage have been dumped by UK companies and caused pollution in the English Channel and North Sea.

They accused the UK of not abiding by the environmental requirements in terms of water quality since BREXIT.

“Yet a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and a contracting party to the Trade and Cooperation Agreement, the United Kingdom is committed to preserving the seas that surround it and that we share!” the letter read.

“We cannot allow the environment, the economic activity of our fishermen and the health of citizens to be seriously endangered by the repeated negligence of the United Kingdom in the management of its waste water. The English Channel and the North Sea are not dumping grounds!” MEP Stéphanie Yon-Courtin, a French lawyer and politician of La République En Marche! (LREM), said in reaction.

EU Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries Virginijus Sinkevičius said that the EU is currently analyzing reports on UK sewage waters spilling into the sea.

“We count on UK to honor all its legal obligations including those of the [Trade and Cooperation Agreement] TCA to prevent any health & environmental damage. Protecting our seas is our common endeavor,” he took to Twitter.

France has also voiced its rejection to the flow of untreated sewage into the English Channel and the North Sea, voicing its concerns because of the pollution emanating from these discharges.

The large flow of sewage affected the inhabitants of the Hauts-de-France region, said Hauts-de-France Region President Xavier Bertrand.

“This practice by water companies is a real ecological disaster which can not only have consequences on the quality of marine waters and biodiversity, but also repercussions on the activities of fishermen and shellfish farmers,” he said in a statement on August 26.

He called upon the French government to communicate with the European partners to ask the United Kingdom to comply with the European Union's environmental requirements for the discharge of untreated waste water.

The UK-based marine conservation charity Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) has spotted raw sewage “again” pumped into the water across the Teesside area in the North Sea, said Andy Preston, Executive Mayor of Middlesbrough, on August 21.

It has been reported by UK media that SAS data showed that there were 654 alerts of sewage overflows into “bathing waters this summer” from 171 places in England and Wales.

In April, the charity launched a campaign with the hashtag #EndSewagePollution denouncing the companies’ pollution. “From Belfast to Edinburgh, Newquay to London, protesters joined to share the #EndSewagePollution message and tell water companies we’re sick of their shit,” the group said in a statement.

However, the BBC said that a UK government spokesperson refuted the French accusations, saying “simply not true.”

“We have also made it law for water companies to reduce the frequency and volume of discharges from storm overflows and made it law for water companies to install new monitors to report in real time any sewage discharges in their area,” the spokesperson was quoted as saying by the BBC.