URGENT improvements are needed to the Island’s ageing sewer and drainage network, requiring more than £50 million of investment, according to a new Scrutiny report.
The Environment, Housing and Infrastructure Scrutiny Panel said funding was needed to meet targets for thousands of homes to be built over the next few years.
Reviewing the government’s “bridging liquid-waste strategy update”, the panel said it had “serious concerns” about the urgency of the work and the need for a sustainable financing plan to be agreed.
It notes that £39m was required between 2023 and 2026, with an additional £13m required in 2027, and says that although funding for 2024 and 2025 has been approved in the Government Plan, “the agreed funding amounts will not cover some projects through to completion” without further resources.
Panel chair Deputy Steve Luce branded the government’s strategy update “more of an asset management plan than a strategy”, and said more consultation and research into alternative options and approaches should be undertaken.
“We are urging the government to push ahead quickly with the short-term liquid-waste works that have been identified and can meet urgent needs. We are also making several recommendations in relation to surface-water management which we feel is currently dealt with in a siloed approach and requires new approaches to the problem.
“In addition, the bridging strategy has not been informed by stakeholder and community engagement and consultation. We feel it imperative that this is done to ensure the right priorities are being addressed and the necessary resources can be delivered to do so,” Deputy Luce said.
Last year, former Infrastructure Minister Deputy Tom Binet, when appearing before the panel, warned that taxpayers would have to provide “big sums of money” to upgrade the Island’s ageing drainage network but said there were no plans to introduce new charges for liquid-waste disposal.
The panel’s review is published today [Monday] and makes 23 recommendations to the government.
It says that in order to meet additional housing needs and enable already approved projects to go ahead, £52.4m is required to increase the capacity of Jersey’s sewerage and drainage network.
Other key recommendations relate to the funding of necessary upgrades. The review found that the government’s strategy update would increase charges significantly per household, and beyond those of comparable Island states.
It recommends that there should be a longer-term approach to the planning and funding of key infrastructure capital projects, with ministers working collaboratively.
Deputy Luce added: “We’ve recommended that a partnered approach is taken between government and Jersey Water to implement an Integrated Water Management Plan by the end of 2025. Notwithstanding the very long timescales for these drainage works, there is also the question of funding that needs to be resolved. Both these issues must – and the panel stress ‘must’ – be a top priority for the Infrastructure Minister and Treasury Minister to address in the immediate future. This issue cannot be left for the next government to solve, as has been done in the past.”
The government announced in December that the Island’s new £67 million sewage treatment works at Bellozanne was completed, which at the time Deputy Binet called “a significant step forward in the way in which we manage and treat liquid waste in the Island”.
