Our Petition

Summary of Aim

To request the European Parliament to address raw sewage pollution in the River Thames

Full Text of Petition

To: European Parliament

Petition submitted by: Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP

Nationality: British

Address: 36b St. Peter's St., London N1 8JT

Signature: .................................................... Date: .........

The River Thames has highly dangerous levels of e.coli and other harmful bacteria, due to large raw sewage discharges from overflows and effluent discharges from sewage plants.

The quality of Thames water is well below EU standards, is in breach of the EU Urban Waste Water Directive, and is causing harm to river users, local residents, marine life and the image of London and the Thames.

The government is refusing to acknowledge the problem and is failing to take action to ensure the water provider Thames Water installs an 'Interceptor tunnel', despite a major study by the Thames Tideway Strategic Study Steering Group indicating that this is the preferred long-term solution to the problem.

While this stalling persists, the situation is getting worse.

On behalf of Londoners, the petition requests the European Parliament to:

- investigate the discharge of millions of tons of raw sewage into the River Thames

- determine responsibility for a breach of EU water quality laws

- secure the installation of all the treatment facilities needed.