'Big Brother' to Watch the Water Companies?

The quality of water is poor in most UK rivers. Part of the problem, is the release of untreated sewage into these waterbodies by water companies. Sewage discharge is only legal as 'storm overflow', when the weather is especially bad. A study, using artificial intelligence (AI) to analyse data, has revealed more than 900 'dark discharge' events. These involved only two water company plants between 2009 and 2018 (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/mar/12/ai-reveals-1000-dark-discharges-of-untreated-sewage-in-england). A 'dark discharge', is a release of sewage into rivers, without providing the statutory notification (i.e. admitting it publically). Many of these events, occurred when rainfall was unexceptional. Three hundren and sixty went on for an entire 24 hours. Some, lasted several days. This release causes considerable pollution. AI seems a good way of 'policing' these events by water companies. Perhaps it can also be used to monitor discharges into rivers from intensive farming?