Sewage in our waters raises 2000 complaints in five years
Scotland's environmental regulator has received more than 2000 complaints about sewage in rivers, lochs and seas since 2019, with the Edinburgh, Lothian and Borders area having the highest number of complaints.
Figures obtained by the Scottish Liberal Democrats using freedom of information legislation show 1048 complaints were made to the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) in the first nine months.
A further 1051 complaints were logged between July 2022 and September 2022 across nine regions.
The figures, first published by the i newspaper, show the Edinburgh, Lothian and Borders area had the highest number of complaints, with 262 between July 2022 and September 2023.
Meanwhile, 139 were made in the Greater Glasgow and Clyde area during this time, followed by 124 in Fife, Angus and Dundee.
Regulators were unable to provide the full scale of figures due to a December 2022 cyber attack impacting data between January 2020 and June 2022.
Scottish Lib Dem leader Alex Cole-Hamilton has voiced concern the true scale of sewage leaks into Scottish waters may be underestimated because just 4 per cent of the 3614 overflows in the 31,000-mile network are currently monitored.
Mr Cole-Hamilton said: "Scottish Liberal Democrats are determined to get to the bottom of Scotland's sewage scandal.
"Only a tiny fraction of the network is currently monitored but public complaints can give us a more complete picture of how widespread this problem is.
"While our rivers, lochs and coastlines are destroyed, customers are facing bumper price rises from the government-owned water giant.
"To turn the tide on this scandal, Scottish Liberal Democrats have published plans for a Clean Water Act that would see vital upgrades to our sewage network and a clamp down on discharges."
A Scottish Water spokesman said 87 per cent of water bodies are rated good or better.
"Our programme of £2.7 billion investment in the past decade, with an additional £500 million to improve monitoring and infrastructure, will help meet even higher standards. A programme to install 1000 new monitors by December 2024 remains on track."