Deep underground, a cavernous 25-kilometer tunnel is set to revolutionize London's sewage system as it prepares to become fully operational in 2025.
The Tideway Tunnel is a super sewer that has been seven years in the making and runs from west London to sewage treatment works on the Thames Estuary. The aim of the tunnel is to divert untreated sewage that is normally tipped into the River Thames when excess rainfall causes sewers to overflow.
When it operates at full capacity, it's expected to remove 95 percent of the waste that normally ends up in the Thames and ease the pressure on London's 150-year-old Victorian sewage system, which has struggled to cope with the sheer volume of waste from its increasing population.
READ MORE
UK Electoral Commission reveals cyber attack
EU's Borrell set to visit Beijing
Montenegro bridge to be repaired with Chinese aid
The Thames Tideway Tunnel is expected to remove 95% of the untreated sewage waste that normally ends up in the River Thames when London's sewage system overflows. /Thames Water
Taylor Geall, Communications Manager at Tideway Tunnel, explained to CGTN how the demand on the city's sewage network has increased over time.
"When the system was built, this happened quite infrequently (overflows), a couple of times a year perhaps," he said. "Now this happens an average of once a week. And so in a typical year, 40 million tonnes of storm sewage, which is sewage and rainwater, spills directly into the Thames.”
The infrastructure is being broadly welcomed by environmental groups, but sewage outflow is a nationwide problem which is going largely unchecked outside the capital. Environment Agency figures show that in 2022 there were more than 800 sewage spills per day on average in UK waterways. Mathew Frith from London's Wildlife Trust says water companies in the UK need to do much more to protect the environment.
"We've got water companies that are getting a lot of money," he said. "We've got a government regulator, what's it doing? Some [water companies] are taking their responsibilities quite innovatively. But whether there's that level of investment that we've got in London, I'm not sure that's the case yet.”
While the Tideway Tunnel should help clean up London's famous river, the prospect of a wider improvement for the UK's waterways is a long way off.
Subscribe to Storyboard: A weekly newsletter bringing you the best of CGTN every Friday