Cole-Hamilton: Scottish Water plan must ensure no more disappointments

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP has today called for investment and ambition for Scotland’s rivers and waterways and warned that there must be no more disappointments, as Scottish Water published their Long-Term Strategy covering the next 25 years.

The strategy warns of the challenges posed by the climate crisis, population change and ageing assets.

It also notes that 10% of the network is made up of asbestos cement pipes and that the burst rate of these pipes will double by 2045. Asbestos cement pipes have been used since the early 1900s. Scottish Water previously noted that “We are proactively targeting A/C pipe replacement as we know these mains are coming to the end of their useful life (50–70 years)”. There is typically considered to be no safe level of exposure to asbestos.

In recent weeks it has been revealed that:

• There were 24,398 sewage dumps recorded in 2024, which lasted for a staggering 208,377 hours.

• Scottish Water have admitted that dozens of “high-priority” projects to stop the worst sewage releases in Scotland have still not been carried out more than two years on.

• Scottish Water have increased bosses bonuses by more than a third.

• Water bills increased by 9.9% in April.

Alex Cole-Hamilton said:

“Many Scots including myself were looking for a plan that turned the tide on Scotland’s sewage scandal.

“Sewage was dumped 24,398 times last year, yet even that figure is likely to be a huge underestimate since so few overflow points are fully monitored.

“This plan identifies the challenges that Scottish Water will face over the next 25 years such as extreme weather, the need to replace aging infrastructure and the need to improve the quality of our rivers and seas.

“All of these are urgent issues in need of attention. Now it’s time to deliver investment and ambition that matches up to the scale of this challenge.

“Scottish Liberal Democrats want to deliver a sewage network fit for the 21st century. Scottish Water must ensure there are no more disappointments.”