Nature-based solutions to sewage dumping on the North Kent Coast

气候变化是我们这个时代最大的挑战之一。它将对水循环产生重大和永久的影响。这反过来又对英格兰和威尔士供水和污水处理部门的长期可持续性产生了严重影响。根据环境署的数据，在整个2021年，南方水务公司将未经处理的污水排放到水道中超过16万小时，平均泄漏时间为8.4小时。去年，南方水务公司因在2010年至2015年间故意向南海岸倾倒未经处理的污水而被罚款9000万英镑。该公司发誓要改变其方式，但英国许多地区仍在经历向河流和海洋倾倒污水的情况。该项目探讨了在英国沿海社区污水倾倒危机的背景下，替代废水系统的意义、影响和含义。它调查并为地方政府决策者提出了精心设计的、以社区为基础的公共基础设施和指导原则。该项目将分两个阶段进行：第一个阶段是对整个北肯特海岸撒克逊海岸沿线的现状进行诊断性调查（由于申请表后面有大量信息，目前尚不清楚）。第二阶段将探索以设计为主导的方案，以解决污水进入下水道网络和污水排入海洋的双重问题。该项目以社区为基础，以与当地活动家SOS Whitstable的合作为中心。该项目的主要目的是考虑在现有维多利亚州污水系统崩溃的情况下，替代废水系统的影响和含义的重要性。它将调查当前的情况，提出如何在不同的背景和地点表现出改进，并通过为当地政府决策者提出一系列设计和指导原则来结束。研究结果也将成为当地团体与南方水务公司和其他利益相关者接触的工具，推动对话朝着切实可行的方向发展，并替代昂贵的大规模高科技升级。其目的是更好地了解对供水网络造成压力的事件是如何表现出来的，以便为供水公司提供替代的本地解决方案，以减少对基础设施的影响。这就需要把当地人带到这段旅程中来。鼓励更多的花园，可持续排水和设计市政基础设施，同时通过分散的污水解决方案来减少基础设施网络的水负荷，并通过连接的、设计良好的公共基础设施——绿地、人行道、公园、潮汐池等。英国上下的社区都愤怒地团结起来，对未经处理的污水流入我们的水道的规模表示愤怒。废水系统为社会提供了一项重要服务，其易受气候变化影响的脆弱性使许多社区的健康和卫生面临风险。

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.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. This project explores the significance, impacts and implications of alternative wastewater systems in the context of the sewage dumping crisis in UK coastal communities. It investigates and proposes alternative well-designed, community-based, public infrastructure and guiding principles for local government decision-makers.The project will undertake two phases: the first is 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 will explore 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 centred on a partnership with local activists, SOS Whitstable. The primary aim of the project is 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 will investigate how the current situation is, propose how improvements would and could manifest in different contexts and locations and conclude by suggesting a range of designs and guiding principles for local government decision-makers. The outcomes would also 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. The aim is to gain a better understanding of how events that stress the water network manifest, in order to give water companies alternative local solutions to reduce the impact on infrastructure. This will require bringing local people on that journey. Encouraging more gardens, sustainable drainage and designing civic infrastructures that simultaneously reduce the water load of our infrastructure networks through alternative decentralized sewage solutions for necessary overflows and doing so through connected, well-designed public infrastructures - green space, walkways, public parks, tidal pools, and so on. 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.