Source · Select Committees · Environmental Audit Committee
Recommendation 8
8
Acknowledged
Paragraph: 55
We welcome the Environment Act’s inclusion of a requirement on water companies to reduce the...
Recommendation
We welcome the Environment Act’s inclusion of a requirement on water companies to reduce the impact on public health of sewage discharges. We recommend that this includes consideration of antimicrobial resistance.
Government response summary AI-generated
The government agrees it is important bathers have access to timely information on water quality and refers to existing signage requirements and pollution risk forecasting services. They will make use of learning from existing trials such as sensor technology to indicate water quality.
Summary of the government's response below — read the verbatim text to verify.
Paragraph Reference:
55
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government · verbatim extract
Acknowledged
The Government recognises the scale of the threat of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and the need to take concerted action across sectors to tackle it. In 2019, the Government published a ‘20-year Vision’ on AMR, in which resistance is effectively contained and controlled, and a five-year National Action Plan to tackle AMR within and beyond our own borders, to ensure progress towards the Vision. We agree it is important to reduce the AMR public health impact of sewage discharges and we are expanding our evidence base to inform our understanding and how to measure it. The Government recently established a £19m Pathogen Surveillance in Agriculture, Food and the Environment project which will strengthen our understanding of antimicrobial resistance in the environment, including the relative importance of different sources (including sewage overflows) and transmission routes. Defra and the Environment Agency are also engaging with the water companies’ Chemicals Investigation Programme which has a workstream focussed on assessing the possible contribution from water industry assets and releases (both effluent and sludges) to the spread of antimicrobial resistance. Improving our understanding of the prevalence of antimicrobial resistance in various stages of wastewater treatment will help manage the contribution from sewage overflows.
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