Climate change is one of the biggest challenges of our time. It will have a significant and permanent impact on the water cycle. This in turn has serious implications for the long-term sustainability of the water and sewerage sectors in England and Wales.

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Throughout the whole of 2021, Southern Water discharged raw sewage into waterways for more than 160,000 hours, with the average spill lasting 8.4 hours, according to Environment Agency data. Southern Water was fined £ 90 million last year for knowingly and deliberately dumping raw sewage off the south coast between the years 2010 and 2015. The company has vowed to change its ways, but many areas in the UK are still experiencing sewage dumping into rivers and the sea. A spokesperson for Southern Water in a recent interview blamed outdated Victorian sewer pipes suggesting that unless large-scale infrastructural investments were made nothing could be done. But this is not true. Circular thinking, decentralised solutions, localised treatment, and sustainable drainage are all methods that can reduce the amount of rainwater at source and reduce high pathogen discharge at outputs.

 

This project uses iterative design processes to test ideas and propose alternative green / nature-based infrastructural solutions. The project was undertaken in two phases: the first was a diagnostic survey of the current situation (which remains unclear with a lot of information held behind request forms) of the entire North Kent Coast following the Saxon Shore Way. The second phase explored design-led propositions to tackle the twin problem of too much water entering the sewer network and sewage discharging into the sea. The project is community based and cantered on a partnership with local activists, SOS Whitstable. 

Communities up and down the UK are united in outrage, voicing their rage at the scale with which raw sewage is seeping into our waterways. Wastewater systems provide a critical service to society, and their vulnerability to the impacts of climate change places the health and sanitation of many communities at risk.

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The aim of the project was to consider the significance of the impacts and implications of alternative wastewater systems in the context of an existing Victorian sewage system at breaking point. It investigated how the current situation is, proposed how improvements would and could manifest in different contexts and locations and concluded by suggesting a range of designs and guiding principles for local government decision-makers. The outcomes are also intended to serve as tools for local groups to engage with Southern Water and other stakeholders driving conversations towards tangible ways forward, and alternatives to costly large-scale, high-tech upgrades. Consequently, the aim for the project was also to simultaneously engage with local community groups and activists (primarily through our partnership with not-for-profit SOS Whitstable) to stitch together advocacy and calls for change with design and system thinking. The aspiration is to see the sewage problem not just as a technical endeavour but as a deeply social project.