Water giants in deep trouble after sewage spills double in a year

Sewage spills into england’s rivers and seas more than doubled last year – prompting campaigners to condemn regulators and water companies.

The scale of the problem was attacked as a ‘final indictment of a failing industry’ in which bosses are paid huge sums while their firms have siphoned off billions of pounds in dividends and racked up debt.

water company pipes poured sewage into UK waters for 3.6million hours last year – more than double the previous year, according to latest environment agency figures published yesterday. The number of spills surged to 464,056, up 54 per cent from 301,091 in 2022.

water UK, the industry body for the companies, said the figures were ‘unacceptable’ but tried to blame the record levels on heavy rain.

The environment agency also blamed the wet year. But it conceded ‘heavy rainfall does not affect water companies’ responsibility to manage storm overflows’.

Sewage is diverted into rivers and seas during heavy rain to stop treatment works being overwhelmed or sewage backing up into homes. environment agency director of water Helen wakeham said: ‘It just shows the scale of storm overflow operation in a wet year.’

But clean water campaigner Feargal Sharkey, the former Undertones singer, told BBC Radio 4’s world at One that the agency was ‘nothing more than a lackey and an apologist for the water industry’.

James wallace, of campaign group River action, said: ‘The scale of the discharges by water companies is a final indictment of a failing industry.’

water UK boss David Henderson said a focus on ‘keeping bills low’ meant companies had not been able to invest in infrastructure.

Records show that performancerelated payouts to chief executives at the five worst- offender water firms reached £4.1million last year.

United Utilities, the top offender in terms of hours of spillage, paid a total of £1.6million in bonuses and long-term incentives to former chief Steve Mogford and his replacement Louise Beardmore. Severn Trent handed boss Liv garfield £2.3million in performance-related pay.