We must wade into the issue of sewage polluting our waterways

Just what will it take for water companies to stop swilling human sewage into our precious waterways? For householders in the Staffordshire village of Barton-under-needwood, not to literally have to watch next door’s poo floating their back garden every time it rains.

For people like Radio 2 presenter Jo Whiley not to fall horribly ill after a wild swim in the River Ouse last September.

For all those people whose lives are blighted by raw effluent being pumped into our rivers, canals and streams.

While it’s true that water companies are permitted to discharge sewage in “exceptional circumstances”, in 2020 sewage spilled into rivers 403,171 times – an increase of 27 per cent from 2019 with disgusting disregard for water quality and wildlife.

When I mentioned that I had taken up wild swimming, various readers – especially you Mrs JL Sheridan – got in touch urging me to spearhead a campaign to shame those who sit on the boards of our water companies into staunching the flow of sewage.

I demurred, not least because heroic former Undertones frontman Feargal Sharkey is far ahead of me, with his plans to start legal action over the Environment Agency’s management of England’s rivers.

But also because I fear these people can’t be shamed. They can however be fined. So I applaud industry watchdog Ofwat for declaring that customers could get refunds if water firms dump sewage without good reason.

More importantly, the fines will hit shareholders. Hard. Companies face having to hand over up to 10 per cent of their turnover if they are found to have broken rules governing effluent release.

Southern Water was fined a record £90million in 2019 for repeated sewage dumping between 2010 and 2015. They were also fined £126million by Ofwat for “serious failures” over the same period, another record.

Customers went on to receive £123million from the company, amounting to a discount of around £60 off their water bills over five years.

Amid calls for more investment and better infrastructure in the sector, it has also been mooted that water company chief executives should have their pay linked to levels of pollution.

Bring it on. These company bosses need to be called to account; I’d like it if they were forced to attend meetings by swimming through the sewage rivers of their own making.