Ofwat - where are you?

by Wild Justice

Ofwat - where are you?

by Wild Justice
Wild Justice
Case Owner
A not-for-profit seeking justice for wildlife in the courts
Funded
on 09th June 2022
£45,434
pledged of £40,000 stretch target from 1727 pledges
Wild Justice
Case Owner
A not-for-profit seeking justice for wildlife in the courts

Latest: Jan. 17, 2023

Bad news - we lost our appeal

We’re disappointed to have to tell you that we lost our appeal for permission for judicial review of Ofwat’s regulation of sewage releases.  This is a blow to us and we know it will …

Read more

Wild Justice has filed a legal claim in the high court seeking a judicial review of Ofwat's failure to regulate sewage discharges under the Water Industry Act 1991 and the Urban Waste Water Treatment (England and Wales) Regulations 1994. We need your help to fight this case.

You don't need to be an expert to know that dumping raw sewage into rivers, lakes and the sea is bad news for those who use our waterways - from fish to those who want to take a dip in the water. And yet untreated sewage was discharged into watercourses over 350,000 times in each of the last two years.

Ofwat is the water services regulator for England and Wales. We believe that Ofwat has gone missing in addressing its legal obligations to ensure sewage works are fit for purpose in the 21st Century. Ofwat - more like Ofwhere?!  Our challenge aims to make Ofwat take action.

Wild Justice is working closely with Windrush Against Sewage Pollution. WASP has investigated and analysed this subject for years and repeatedly brought these matters to Ofwat's attention, but Ofwat has failed to act.

We need to raise £40,000 to cover the costs of this case so far. This is one of the most complex, expensive and important cases Wild Justice has taken. If you care about wildlife, if you are an angler, a surfer, a wild swimmer or any other type of water lover, we hope you agree and can help with a donation.

Thank you for every donation and please spread the word widely.


Photo credit: http://windrushwasp.org/

If the costs of this legal challenge are lower than expected then any unused funds will be used to support work of a similar nature by Wild Justice.


Get updates about this case

Subscribe to receive email updates from the case owner on the latest news about the case.

Recent contributions

Be a promoter

Your share on Facebook could raise £26 for the case

I'll share on Facebook
Update 2

Wild Justice

Jan. 17, 2023

Bad news - we lost our appeal

We’re disappointed to have to tell you that we lost our appeal for permission for judicial review of Ofwat’s regulation of sewage releases.  This is a blow to us and we know it will be to many who supported us financially and/or morally. We’ve invested a lot of time in researching the issue and its legal background, and over £40,000 of your donations in legal fees taking the case and then taking it on to the Court of Appeal. We gave it our best shot but there is nowhere else to go. 

There are some more details on our blog - click here.

But we want to say a big thank you to all who supported this challenge. We can't take legal challenges without public support and the support for this challenge was amazing. Thank you. 

We’ve already started some further investigations in relation to sewage discharges. We’ll let you know if anything comes of them. But we’d also like to wish others well in their actions on water quality; small organisations like Windrush Against Sewage Pollution with whom we worked closely, Surfers Against Sewage, River Action, Wild Fish and the incomparable Feargal Sharkey

We're sorry that we can't bring you better news.

Update 1

Wild Justice

June 10, 2022

Thank you!

Yesterday was amazing! You were so generous and we kept looking at the donations coming in at quite a speed. We never thought we'd raise £40,000 in a single day - but thanks to you we did. Thank you.

We've left the crowdfunder open for a little while as we are still in the range of financial commitments that we face at this stage of the legal challenge, but we'll almost certainly close it later today.

We will update this page now and again with any major news but the best way to be right up to date with this legal challenge, and other Wild Justice work, is to subscribe, it's free, to our e-newsletter which is sent out roughly every 10 days or so.  To sign up to our free newsletter - click here.

Thank you for such generous support - all Wild Justice's work is funded by donations.

Get updates about this case

Subscribe to receive email updates from the case owner on the latest news about the case.

    There are no public comments on this case page.