{"id":2639,"date":"2026-07-08T23:16:48","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T23:16:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ahda.org.uk\/blog\/?p=2639"},"modified":"2026-07-08T23:16:49","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T23:16:49","slug":"sewage-in-our-rivers-meeting-called-by-jas-athwal-mp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ahda.org.uk\/blog\/2026\/07\/08\/sewage-in-our-rivers-meeting-called-by-jas-athwal-mp\/","title":{"rendered":"Sewage in our rivers – Meeting called by Jas Athwal MP"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Jas Athwal MP summoned Thames Water and Environment Agency to Parliament, for questioning about the awful sewage dumping in Redbridge’s waterways stating we need urgent action, accountability, and a plan from Thames Water and the Environment Agency to clean them up.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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AHDA, as local stakeholders were invited. Our Vice Chair Jenny Chalmers and Pat O’Grady attended.
Sections of the River Roding have recorded ammonia levels of up to 5.19 parts per million<\/strong> which is significantly above the 0.2ppm threshold generally considered necessary to sustain aquatic life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stormwater drains registering ammonia concentrations as high as 30.0ppm<\/strong> suggest substantial and ongoing sewage contamination. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Roundtable Meeting at the House of Commons<\/strong> chaired by Jas Athwal MP and attended by the Aldborough Hatch Defence Association, AHDA, Jenny Chalmers and Pat O\u2019Grady with representatives from Thames Water, Environment Agency, MPs, Council Members (LBR, B&D) and other Action Groups (River Roding Trust, Thames 21, Love the Cran Brook, South Park Users Group, Gardens of Peace).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Monday 26th<\/sup> July 2026 The purpose of the meeting was to have a discussion involving Thames Water, the Environment Agency, representatives from Redbridge and Barking and Dagenham councils and local environmental groups about the river Roding and ways to improve the waterways running into it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The AHDA is particularly concerned about the Seven Kings Water and the Cran Brook. The levels of pollution in all our public waterways are currently unacceptable and amongst the worst in London. Thames Water needs to invest heavily in schemes to reduce flooding, stop pollution entering the waterways and dealing with misconnections that allow raw sewage to enter them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Discussions<\/strong>
[Chatham House Rule applies, comments may not be attributed]<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

More investigations involving data and recordings are needed to discover the sources of pollution and more sewage works needed to cope with the increasing population.
More training is needed for people to identify and record sources of pollution. I also think there should be more publicity and ease of how the public can report it. Pollution and flooding also go hand in hand, for example when flood waters are pumped int our waterways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

River Roding (and its tributaries) is one of the most polluted waterways in London after decades of neglect. More efforts are needed to discover sources of pollution and by the end of 2026 authorities must have a plan for improving the prosecution of all polluters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thames Water should by 2030 have fixed the pollution problems and start investing more money in improvements. Outfalls showing greatest neglect involve the Cran Brook with its walled in pipes making it ecologically dead. Nothing has been done to fix the problems. Positive action is needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The extra data from the Roding Trust was very helpful but improvements will all take a long time, a government target being 2050. Misconnections are very expensive to fix. It is easier to track in dry weather. There is no legal obligation to fix misconnections. The property owners are responsible for resolving any misconnections. Help needed to enforce this when owners to not do anything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Visible sewage in rivers needs to be dealt with much more quickly. From 2020 raw sewage passing through rivers near parks has been reported but nothing has been done.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a need for better delivery of action and solving problems as to who\u2019s responsible, it is too easy to say you\u2019re not responsible. It would be helpful to tell MPs if there are gaps in the law. Questions were asked about what is being done regarding businesses, particularly new ones, that are polluting. How important it is to know what proportion of pollution comes from misconnections rather than other sources. Surely this should be known before investing a lot of money in fixing the problems. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018The Mayor\u2019s Water Plan strategy\u2019 is that by 2034, to make London\u2019s rivers and waterways clean enough for swimming, not every stretch but making safe, well managed swimming locations across London.\u00a0
I wonder how many will be in Redbridge or Barking and Dagenham? Their strategy would include pressing Thames Water to cut sewage discharges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There has been no enforcement action in the last 30 years.

Despite lots of hard evidence being provided there have still been no criminal investigations.

Jenny said that Chris Gannaway of the AHDA, has researched a number of pollution problems in the Redbridge area and that Thames Water and Council need to listen to his interpretation of the problems and possible solutions that could be undertaken now without relatively huge costs that would have a significant impact on pollution, particularly in the upper regions of the Roding, the Cran Brook and Seven Kings Water. For example, creating reed beds and flooding particular areas. These would involve prioritising cleaning up the upper waterways first to stop continued contamination into the lower sections.
Jenny emphasised that there is an urgent need for specific, targeted actions to be made rather than vague promises<\/strong>.
Projects are being run to try and reach people who aren\u2019t always aware of the pollution problems.
Some things to get out of this meeting:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  • More specific targets to solve pollution problems.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Misconnections, where drains are wrongly connected, allowing sewage to enter rivers, are a big problem but we don\u2019t know how big.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Polluters are not being prosecuted.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • There\u2019s no investment in projects to clean our waterways.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Redbridge\u2019s waterways, and ponds and lakes they run into, are not safe for bathing.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Redbridge\u2019s waterways have been neglected for too long. More publicity needed on how to report evidence of pollution.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • More accountability needed from those who pollute and those with responsibility to prosecute.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    Report from Jenny Chalmers AHDA, with additions from Pat O’Grady. 7th<\/sup> July 2026<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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    Additional information <\/strong>
    From Chris Gannaway AHDA<\/strong>
    The problem is pollution to three rivers. The Cran Brook and Seven Kings Water are in our area. Both flow into the Roding.

    Cran Brook<\/strong>
    Pollution from land fill leachate, from Fairlop Waters landfill directly at source at Barkingside.
    There is an underground engineered bypass to the horse pasture adjoining the railway track so there is minimal flow in the old Brook channel.

    We are waiting for a report from LBR who have commissioned some kind of water treatment processing at Fairlop Waters. Also, a report from Thames21 on the whole Cran Brook plan to source, and one specifically on flooding of the old mill pond in the horse pasture.

    The Love Cranbrook Project wants Valentines section of river clean such that its flow can fully flow through a re-naturalised section into the boating lake doing away with the sewer bypass and the re-directed Tanners Brook.

    I have pointed out that it is necessary for the upper river work to be phased completion first, then house sewage misconnections to be corrected on the section of closed culvert between Sainsbury\u2019s Chase Lane and Perth Road then open up the whole in park section of the Brook such that re-naturalised river course. After the Wash the Brook runs in an underground culvert along Northbrook Road and on to the Roding. This section also should be subject to sewage misconnections.

    Seven Kings Water
    <\/strong>Rises at Hainault Forest Country Park through the lake then hits the Hainault Industrial estate land drains where it is subject to intermittent spot pollution of all sorts. Through the Gardens of Peace Muslim Cemetery which is beautifully landscaped.

    I have been working on a design of filter bed scheme for this site to minimise said pollution but will need further funding.

    Seven Kings Water continues in a closed culvert across the Hainault Recreation Ground and dumps into the large lake at Fairlop Waters Country Park which acts as a large settling pond. The outflow to the south appears to be of relatively good quality as we have good results on out Riverfly surveys that I carry out with another volunteer.

    Fairlop Waters Masterplan is to de-culvert and naturalise Seven Kings Water. When Hog Hill ditch flows in from the west during winter flow as far as South Park Lake. There is a need for a settling lagoon at this point.

    Seven Kings Water continues to Hargreaves \/ Happy Valley where more ditches connect plus the A12 road run off through Seven Kings Park where a lot of silt is dumped on to what was a nice gravel bed to the river.

    On reaching Westwood Road Recreation Ground it dives underground into covered culvert. It should be noted that this is a flood risk area. It reappears at South Park where it is not only polluted from sewage, road run off and people tipping oil etc down drains! There is a partial bypass system for the polluted flow downside of the lake it flows on from South Park in an open culvert along side Barking Park at Loxford Water to discharge into the Roding in Barking and Dagenham. The South Park Users group are campaigning for more clean water.

    The Roding<\/strong>
    Besides the 2 small tributes being a problem there is up river agricultural and road run off and Thames Water outfalls from sewage works to contend with. From a nature conservation perspective, the river above Ilford Hill is classed as a Metropolitan SINC and that below Ilford Hill as of borough quality which to some extent reflects the water quality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Jas Athwal MP summoned Thames Water and Environment Agency to Parliament, for questioning about the awful sewage dumping in Redbridge’s waterways stating we need urgent action, accountability, and a plan from Thames Water and the Environment Agency to clean them up. AHDA, as local stakeholders were invited. Our Vice Chair Jenny Chalmers and Pat O’Grady […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2641,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"disabled","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[150,146,147,149,133,148],"class_list":["post-2639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-cran-brook","tag-pollution","tag-river-pollution","tag-roding","tag-seven-kings-water","tag-sewage-pollution"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t