Thames Water has been fined a record £122.7 million by Ofwat due to severe breaches in operational obligations concerning wastewater management and unlawful dividend distributions. Ofwat's investigations revealed that £104.5 million of the penalty was due to significant wastewater infrastructure failures, while £18.2 million related to dividend issues. For the first time, a penalty was imposed on a water company regarding dividends not reflecting performance. The regulator stressed the need for compliance in environmental standards as public and government scrutiny intensifies over sewage and pollution issues.
Our investigation has uncovered a series of failures by the company to build, maintain and operate adequate infrastructure to meet its obligations. The company also failed to come up with an acceptable redress package that would have benefited the environment, so we have imposed a significant financial penalty.
The government has launched the toughest crackdown on water companies in history. Last week, we announced a record 81 criminal investigations have been launched into water companies. Today Ofwat announced the largest fine ever handed to a water company in history. The era of profiting from failure is over.
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