Scottish Water has published an update on the 'Improving Urban Waters Routemap' a year on from its initial publication.

The Routemap was first published in December 2021 and outlined the ways in which steps would be taken to improve the management of Scotland’s sewer systems, including investment of up to £500m to deliver improvements in water quality, in spill monitoring and in provision of public information.

Now an update, which has been reported to Scottish Government, has highlighted some of the progress made to date under four main categories of activity:

Simon Parsons, Director for Strategic Customer Service Planning, said: "We can be very proud in Scotland of the quality of our water environment, and we take our responsibility extremely seriously in protecting this, including improving sewer network performance and reducing spillage events.

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"Work this year has identified key locations for priority action in terms of investment and monitoring, with more than 50 projects formed to help deliver improvement at over 100 CSO locations and we have started the installation of around 1000 spill monitors at other CSOs.

"We will continue to do all we can to reduce spills, prevent sewage related debris, and protect water quality."

The update also highlights the publication of spill data reported to SEPA annually covering five years from 2017-2021, in line with a routemap commitment.

Environment Minister Mairi McAllan said: "As I said when I launched the route map last December in Parliament, the Scottish Government takes the matter of sewage spills very seriously. We recognise the importance of detailed planning to ensure the investments and improvements being put into place under the route map are appropriate, proportionate and effective

"The results so far are encouraging, including beginning the roll out of 1,000 monitors to help grow our understanding of the sewer network. They also help Scottish Water understand how best to respond more quickly when issues arise and provide better information to the public about incidents. We will continue to work closely with SEPA and Scottish Water to build on this progress in 2023."