Water firms are failing to disclose how much sewage is being discharged into rivers, lakes and coastlines.
Environmental Information Requests by the Liberal Democrats revealed that water firms could be guitly of a scandalous cover up.
We have no idea how many billions of litres of sewage is being pumped into our precious rivers and lakes. The true extent of environmental damage caused by this scandal is completely unknown.
Tim Farron
The staggering admission follows public outrage at water companies destroying the environment with sewage discharges. Currently, water firms only provide the length of sewage discharges, broken down by time. However, they refuse to publish the volume and litres of sewage discharged, essential information for understanding the environmental impacts.
Thames Water said they did not hold the volume data, however, the firm has previously made public that some of its monitors do measure volume. Last year it was reported Thames Water pumped over two billion litres of sewage into the Thames over a 48 hour period. This data was not given when Thames Water responded to the Environmental Information Request.
Meanwhile, Scottish Water does publish the volume of sewage discharged into waterways. Scottish Water’s sewage monitors revealed that 174 million m3 of sewage has been dumped into Scotland’s rivers, lakes and coastal waters since 2018, with 47 million m3 in 2022. Unlike England and Wales just a small proportion of Scotland’s storm overflows have monitors installed.
The Liberal Democrats believe the industry is either not telling the truth on holding the data, or it has installed inadequate sewage monitors. Previous analysis by the party has found one in six sewage monitors were broken last year.
Ministers need to get tougher on these water firms by demanding they fit proper sewage monitors which are up to the job. The Government is letting water firms get away with faulty and flawed monitors.
Tim Farron
Back our plan to end the sewage scandal
Liberal Democrats are leading the charge to clean up our rivers, lakes and coastlines. It's time to put an end to sewage dumping, protect our precious waterways, and ensure a sustainable water system for generations to come.
Almost 2,000 water users reported being ill last year afters swimming and surfing - nearly triple the number on previous years
This is a devastating blow to our country’s environment.
The Government has caved into the Liberal Democrat campaign to end sewage discharges into rivers.