On Tuesday, 13 May, local charity Save Our Lands and River (SOLAR) was interviewed by BBC News London, expressing concerns about Thames Water's Teddington Direct River Abstraction (TDRA) project .

Thames Water is planning to construct a new tunnel from Mogden Sewage Works to the River Thames, which SOLAR says: "would pump treated sewage into the river between Teddington and Kingston".

Speaking to BBC News London about Thames Water's performance, Ian McNuff, a founding member of SOLAR, said: "It was a tale of woe all round. Pollution incidents up, leakage still bad, supply infrastructure not working properly, health and safety worsening.

"The conclusion was you don't have faith in either the delivery of what [Thames Water] say or indeed in terms of the decisions they make.

"A great example is this new Thames Sewage Pump scheme here at Teddington. In this wonderful swimming location, they're going to tip millions of litres of treated sewage."

You can view the full interview here.

Earlier that day, the utility firm had been summoned to appear before MPs in the Houses of Parliament.

At this event in Parliament, various Liberal Democrat MPs from across London and the South of England joined forces to call for the Government to place Thames Water under special administration. 

 Moreover, Thames Water's Chair and Chief Executive had been questioned by MPs on the Environment Select Committee.  

Following the hearing, Alistair Carmichael MP (chair of the committee) said: "Our hearing with Thames Water bosses this morning raised real concerns about the company's commitment to transparency and accountability to its customers.

"Alarm bells are ringing about the processes underpinning its proposed takeover bid by KKR and the potential for a corporate stitch up that benefits those at the top and fails to deliver for customers and the environment."

 SOLAR also has a variety of community events coming up in protest against Thames Water.

Kingston resident and SOLAR supporter Berni O'Dea added: "We don't have faith in Thames Water's decision-making process. Suggesting the Thames Sewage Pump as a solution to future drought situations is questionable on many levels

"Whilst Thames Water prepare to host a statutory consultation, they have not provided the latest information on leakage, on how their Teddington Direct River Abstraction scheme will interact with the proposed large new abstraction at Surbiton or clarified what is happening with the Beckton desalination plant, all of which would have a significant impact on the proposed Thames sewage pump. 

"Thames Water's proposal will be a disaster for the local environment. Why tip extra loads of treated sewage with E. Coli and other contaminants into the River Thames in times of drought?" 

"The Thames Sewage Pump is set to cost £1 billion and operate for only 6 weeks every second year. For a fixed size, low water quality scheme, this represents terrible value for money. 

"But we shouldn't really be surprised when Thames Water's chair, Sir Adrian Montague, told MPs: 'Our most precious asset is our senior management team" when describing the obscene level of bonuses they were receiving'."

Find out more about SOLAR's upcoming events here.

A Thames Water spokesperson said: "Local communities have our absolute assurance that no sewage will enter into the River Thames through our Teddington Direct River Abstraction Project (TDRA). It is physically impossible by design. 

"This nationally significant infrastructure project will help us to protect water supply for millions of Londoners, providing up to 75 million litres of water each day during periods of drought. The project will work by abstracting water from the River Thames upstream of Teddington Weir and transferring it to our existing Lee Valley reservoirs to become drinking water.

 "We'll replenish the river with clean highly treated water, protecting river levels and the local environment. Residents also have our absolute assurance that this project will not negatively impact river quality. You can find more information here: https://thames-sro.co.uk/projects/tdra/."