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Britain’s privatised water companies tipped sewage into rivers and coastal waters for a record 3.6mn hours last year despite a groundswell of anti-pollution protests and pledges to increase investment, according to official government data.
Although the duration of spills increased, the number of outflows fell slightly compared with 2023, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said in its annual report on sewage outflows in England on Thursday.
It said the increase in sewage outflows was due to a lack of capacity in the pipes that carry effluent to sewage treatment plants, as well as overstretched treatment plants and heavy rain last year.
