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SEWAGE

Major upgrades are needed

Much has been discussed recently regarding the UK problem in dealing with sewage and wastewater. It is impossible to imagine that the UK, as a modern, civilised country, is in such a bad situation in being able to properly deal with sewage. We can discuss at length the political issues, but a major issue, in my mind, relates to technical problems and in particular how these technical problems are dealt with from a political perspective.

It appears that over the years, and potentially more recently, we have allowed politics to override technical necessity in many areas.

If we had allowed politics to overrule technical necessity during the Victorian era and more recently, we would not have had the strident development of many major industries.

Clearly, there needs to be a robust response from the technical world in dealing with many of the issues and problems dealt with in our world today. As far as the UK is concerned such involvement should include senior members of the ICE among other professional bodies. There does not need to be a formal permanent committee for such activities, but simply a register where engineers can be enlisted in order to recommend essential action to be executed in order to resolve specific technical and commercial problems.

There now needs to be a planned schedule for the development and upgrade of all of the UK sewage systems. This is an urgent requirement and the ICE needs to be involved through this process of scheduling, planning and execution.

Peter Broughton (F), pbroughton@meesltd.com

The Editor, New Civil Engineer,
​4th Floor, Harmsworth House, 13-15 Bouverie Street, London EC4Y 8DP
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