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The water industry in England has set out an ambitious new vision with the publication of a Manifesto for Water.

100,000 kilometres of England’s sewer pipes were built before the mid-1960s and use an old-fashioned design that carries two kinds of waste: rainwater from street drains, and sewage from homes.

They are therefore known as ‘combined’ sewers. Combined sewers were built many decades before modern rates of population growth and climate change were understood, which means that there is often now more sewage and rainwater going into these systems than first envisaged.

Water companies across the UK are working with Sainsbury’s and Waitrose to give away around 200,000 fat traps and funnels to people buying their Christmas turkey or roast. Each year, thousands of sewer blockages happen because people pour cooking fat, oil and grease (FOG) down their kitchen sinks.

Water UK is leading the debate in Europe on options available to address the growing concerns about the prevalence of pharmaceuticals. At present, we believe it is not practical to set formal regulatory standards for pharmaceutical residues in water (either for raw water or tap water) until further research on costs and benefits, supported by robust science, becomes available.

Water UK continues to work with retailers and manufacturers and to ensure non-flushable products are not thrown down the toilet and into sewers. Baby wipes, cleaning wipes and other non-flushable materials can block sewers and cost customers and water and sewerage companies millions of pounds a year in cleaning and repairs.

Water companies are set to complete a five-year investment programme worth £25 billion, while keeping rises in the average household water and sewerage bill below inflation in 2014-15.