The BBC has reported that water companies released raw sewage into rivers and seas in England for more than 1.75 million hours last year.
There were an average of 825 sewage spills into waterways per day, the data shows – down 19% on the previous year. The latest data, revealed by the Environment Agency on Friday, was taken from monitoring stations installed at combined sewer overflows or CSOs.
Although not illegal, academics and environmental groups say releasing sewage poses a danger to human health.
‘Largely down to dry weather’
Whilst the data shows a 34% reduction in the duration of spills since 2021, John Leyland, environment agency executive director said last year’s decrease was “largely down to dry weather, not water company action”.
“We want to see quicker progress from water companies on reducing spills and acting on monitoring data,” he added.
According to the data, the company that released sewage most often in 2022 was United Utilities, which covers the North West of England. It spilled sewage for nearly half a million hours.