Three water firms have sparked fury after they were accused of dumping raw sewage hundreds of times on dry days last year.
South, Thames and Wessex water are believed to have released sewage for 3,500 hours across 2022 according to an investigation by the BBC.
The broadcaster revealed that sewage had been released on some of last year’s hottest days, including on July 19 when the UK recorded its highest ever temperature at 40.3 degrees.
Water companies are allowed to release into waterways to prevent pipe systems from overflowing, but must do so only after heavy rain to stop sewage from entering rivers and the sea.
The report, which cross-referenced data provided by the three water companies with rainfall from the Met Office, found that there had been 388 separate discharges last year in a practice known as “dry-spilling”.
Other water companies did not provide figures for the report due to an ongoing crimimal investigation by the Environment Agency into alleged widespread breaches of permits.
Environment Secretary Thérèse Coffey told BBC News: “It does seem extraordinary on the hottest day of the year that there may be releases. The EA is the regulator, they are the people who do the detailed investigation of why that has happened.”
Labour has since called for an investigation into the companies to ascertain any license breaches and evaluate the environmental damage caused by the spills.
He said: “The Conservatives have allowed our precious waterways to be flooded with sewage, damaging the environment and our local tourism.
“This scandal is their fault. They cut back enforcement and monitoring against water companies releasing this filth, and are now failing to prosecute them when they are blatantly breaking the law.”
Recently, a court heard how water firms discharged sewage more than 300,000 times, over 1.75 million hours last year, with 75% of UK rivers posing a ‘serious risk’ to human health.
The environmental performance of the UK’s water and sewage companies fell to the lowest level on record in 2021, according to the Environment Agency, with the nation ranked as one of the worst countries in Europe for water quality.
Feargal Sharkey, former front-man of The Undertones, told BBC Breakfast: “Two years ago, the regulator wrote to the water companies. They have a legal obligation to build and operate a sewage system capable of effectively dealing with the content of those sewers.
“They also told the water companies we as customers have already provided them with all the funding they needed to fix this sewage system for the last 30 years.
“So the question we should be asking is, what happened to the money? Where did it go? It clearly wasn’t spent on the sewage system, and can we have a refund?
“If anyone is going to pay for this it should be the shareholders of those companies that have made off with £72 billion of our money and the bondholders who are now reaping the benefits of interest on £60 billion worth of debt.”
The revelations follow the government’s recent relaxation of water pollution rules as part of efforts to ease the housing crisis.
Housing secretary Michael Gove announced a major rewriting of “nutrient neutrality” rules in a desperate bid to boost housebuilding in England.
Set by Natural England, the rules prevent developments from increasing nutrient levels to dangerous levels in local wetlands or waterways in protected areas.
Earlier this year, WaterUK, the industry body that represents the UK’s nine water companies apologised for not “acting quickly enough” with sewage spills in 2022.
Ruth Kelly, Chair of Water UK, said: “We’re sorry about the upset and the anger from the fact that there have been overspills of untreated sewage onto beaches and into rivers over the past few years. We’re sorry that we didn’t act sooner, and but we get it.”
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