§ Mr. Newensasked the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) if he has any plans to encourage the recycling of sewage for useful purposes both in order to reduce the pollution of waterways and the seas surrounding Great Britain and possibly to provide useful by-products;
(2) if he will encourage the study of ways of means of recycling sewage for useful purposes;
(3) what proportion of sewage in Eng land and Wales is discharged into the rivers and the sea.
§ Mr. Denis HowellVirtually all sewage works discharge their effluents to rivers or the sea. A significant proportion of the liquid solid waste produced by sewage treatment is already reused. Effluents discharged to rivers increase the water available for abstraction downstream and the reuse of water in this way is now an important element in water supply over much of the country. About 40 per cent. of the sludge produced at inland sewage treatment works is applied to agricultural land. The Department keeps the possibilities for recycling sewage under continuing review and I am always interested to consider new ideas. Studies are in hand on the problems associated with increasing reuse of water and a working party is currently giving fresh consideration to all aspects of the application of sewage sludge to land.