There’s little doubt that public scrutiny is pushing UK water quality higher up the agenda. Influencers like former punk band front man, now clean water crusader, Feargal Sharkey, have galvanized attention, highlighting the ecological and human costs of underinvestment in water management infrastructure, and confusing regulation.
Campaign groups like Surfers Against Sewage continue to call out failures by utilities and regulators alike, drawing attention to what they term “regulatory disarray.” The clear message? In an era of heightened climate and environmental consciousness, much more can - and should - be done, both with respect to aligning the patchwork of ‘responsible’ agencies around more unified water management strategy, and specifically, with delivering meaningful change in water quality.
The imperative to improve monitoring and management of the water quality of the UK’s rivers, lakes and coastal waters has never been more pressing. For UK coastal regions in particular, the impact of ‘dirty’ water extends beyond obvious health and safety considerations.
With seaside economies at risk and environmental accountability entering a new era of liability, the time to shift from reactive to proactive approaches is now. And a quiet revolution in water quality monitoring technology may offer part of the solution.
High-footfall, tourist-driven coastalregions from Cornwall to Cumbria are heavily dependent on clean, safe waters toattract tourists and sustain local businesses and economies. A single sewageoverflow, for example, can lead to beach closures by the Environment Agency (EA), without any definitive evidence of watercontamination close to, or reaching, the shore.
Indeed, Britain’s beachside towns are arguably exposed disproportionately to the consequences of outdated sewage infrastructure (and ambiguous regulation). Precautionary beach shutdowns cause significant damage to local businesses and tourist-dependent communities in terms of revenue losses (shops, hotels, amusement arcades) and local employment.
This ‘just in case’ reactionary approach is both costly and archaic, when precise, real-time (and ‘just intime’) water quality monitoring would enable a more proactive strategy.
Accountability for water quality is spread across a maze of regulators and regulations including Ofwat, Environment Agency, Drinking Water Inspectorate, Natural England and local councils. The result? Blurred ‘ownership’ and responsibility, inconsistent application of ‘rules’ and disjointed enforcement. Penalties and sanctions are typically imposed ‘after the fact’ with little enforcement of obligations on the part of ‘rule breakers’ to remediate in a meaningful way, and within a short timeline.
New legislation under Section 82 of the Environment Act 2021 aims to tighten this regulatory framework, requiring all UK water companies to implement continuous water quality monitoring upstream and downstream of all storm overflows and sewage treatment sites discharging into watercourses.
This legislation became enforceable from April 2025 and has significant implications in terms of performance of mandated obligations, transparency and compliance.
While the legislation specifies the commencement of monitoring from April 2025, however, it does not delineate a specific deadline for the submission of compliance plans. Nonetheless, to meet upcoming requirements and mandatory obligations, water companies are advised to:
In the interim, there are actions and solutions that local councils and regional water authorities can be taking right now to mitigate the risks arising from contaminated water, with accurate, reliable and consistent water quality monitoring.
WellStat is already working in partnership with Bournemouth, Christchurch, and Poole Council (BCP) and Wessex Water to monitor beachside coastal water quality along ‘England’s Riviera’ - a hugely popular tourist destination for UK and international holidaymakers. Today, WellStat’s proprietary monitoring devices and data management technology is enabling continuous and granular measurement of water quality against multiple contaminant criteria, from sewage to blue/green algae and other chemical pollutants.
Live data from sensor feeds deployed within an integrated “Sea Check” application - and accessed by BCP - provide accurate, up to the minute information about beach and sea conditions, in turn driving proactive decisions around the necessity and timing of beach closures.
As well as ensuring that the public has trust and confidence that water quality is being monitored closely and actively, smarter, more agile-decision making based on ‘live’ data ensures greater economic resilience for tourism-dependent local economies and communities.
A number of UK coastal towns already deploy LoRaWAN and private 5G networks in water quality monitoring and are seeking third party service providers and applications that can demonstrate to stakeholders (from county treasurers to council tax payers) the ‘return on investment’ i.e. whether and how monitoring infrastructure is paying for itself. In Bournemouth, water quality monitoring sensors installed on buoys transmit data via the BCP LoRaWAN network; WellStat also has air quality monitors in the same area that transmit data over the same network (as well as its 5G network).
Our ongoing engagement with Wessex Water – the first UK water company to monitor storm overflows at bathing waters 365 days a year - and BCP is a testament to the value and success of the initial pilot project, and positions them as pioneers in the transition from crisis response to proactive custodians of the environment.
As statutory obligations expand, so too must the technical infrastructure that underpins them. WellStat’s work with BCP demonstrates that accurate, real-time water monitoring is not a distant aspiration; it's already being deployed to protect lives, livelihoods and ecosystems.
Effective and efficient water quality monitoring gives all vested interests - local councils, water authorities, regulators et al - the tools to succeed amid growing regulatory scrutiny, empowering all stakeholders to advocate for local communities with evidence, not guesswork.
For many UK coastal communities, water quality is a foundational concern with financial, environmental and reputational stakes. Technologies like those pioneered by WellStat may prove to be a linchpin, offering a rigorous, quantifiable route to water quality management strategies, regulations and most importantly actions that reflect the tide of public opinion.
Learn more about WellStat's water quality monitoring solutions here.
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