Water companies have admitted to discharging raw sewage into England’s rivers, estuaries and seas around 1,000 times a day during the last year, according to government data.
While they are permitted to do this during times of heavy rainfall, the Environment Agency says spills can affect water quality if they happen too often.
It revealed discharges from storm overflows – which releases untreated sewage and rainwater into the environment to ease pressure on the system – happened more than 372,000 times in 2021.
There were more than 2.6 million hours of spills last year, the Environment Agency data – provided by water and sewerage firms – showed.
The Liberal Democrats said it was a “national scandal” and accused ministers of “ignoring outrage” over how often untreated sewage is going into waterways.
“The government is letting water companies get away with polluting our rivers and poisoning animals for decades to come,” Tim Farron, its rural affairs spokesperson, said.
The Environment Agency says storm overflows are an important part of the sewerage system. They prevent the system from getting overwhelmed during heavy and prolonged rainfall to avoid flooding or sewage overflowing into streets and properties.
The government has been trying to clamp down on spills – which can pollute waterways and harm ecosystems – happening too frequently.
Releasing the new data, it said most storm overflows now have monitoring devices, which provides information on how often they are being used to help to “hold water companies to account and drive environmental protections”.
The data showed 5 per cent of storm overflows recorded 100 or more spills during the last year. The average number was 29 times.
But the government admitted the figures showed water firms had been discharging sewage into rivers and seas more than they should.
Sir James Bevan, the chief executive of the Environment Agency, said water companies have “rightly been under increasing pressure” from his organisation, campaigners and the public “for allowing far too many sewage spills into rivers”.
He said the current situation was “simply not good enough” and said water firms needed to “act now to reduce their overflows to the minimum possible”.
Dr Richard Benwell from Wildlife and Countryside Link, a network of environmental groups, said: “These figures show another year of our waterways being choked by sewage pollution. This must change, for our own health as well as that of plants and animals struggling to survive in our polluted waters.”
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