The repeated failure of the Tories to implement rules to create "sponge cities" has led to much more visible sewage pollution, more flooding and increasing instances of water being cut off, they say.
Alastair Chisholm, the director of the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management, said: "These rules should have come in in 2011. They were canned by Eric Pickles in 2015 and we have had 13 years of delays. This has been kicked down the road and what is going on now is the result of that."
He spoke as the institute published a report at Westminster that calls for the next government to order an independent investigation into water companies, which stand accused of widespread pollution and profiteering, and the regulators, who have failed to robustly control the privatised industry.
"Over 30 years on from water privatisation, with widespread urbanisation and agricultural intensification, a fresh approach - including potential reform of water regulators - is needed," the report says.
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