Raw sewage dumped into River Thames and South Coast beaches after heavy rainfall

Raw sewage was dumped into over 200 waterways which feed into River Thames while over 150 beaches were also affected by overflows after heavy rainfall hit parts of the UK.

On Sunday morning, Thames Water was in the process of discharging waste into around 200 brooks and streams. A further 25 locations were used to dump sewage in the last 48 hours, according to the provider’s data.

At least 170 beaches across the UK were subject to sewage dumps in the last 48 hours, with the Surfers Against Sewage organisation issuing pollution alerts across multiple south England beaches.

On the Isle of Wight 12 out of 14 beaches were hit with pollution warnings and 21 beaches from Hastings to Portsmouth were subject to sewage discharge at the time of writing.

This week the UK was subject to a band of wet weather, overwhelming the majority of Britain’s sewage network which is designed as a “combined system”, meaning wastewater is transported to treatment plants in the same pipes as rainwater.

Grab taken of coastal sewage alerts provided by Surfers Against Sewage (Credit: Surfers Against sewage)

Currently, UK water companies are allowed to discharge untreated waste into waterways after exceptional rainfall to prevent the system from becoming overwhelmed and sewage backing up into people’s homes. These are called storm overflow discharges.

However, firms have come under heavy criticism for the amount of sewage being dumped into Britain’s rivers, lakes and seas, with official figures recording more than 384,000 discharges last year. Every river in the UK failed to meet chemical standards, according to the Rivers Trust 2021 report.

Thames Water warns that its data is not always accurate as its monitors can sometimes be triggered by other movements that are not sewage.

On Monday Downing Street said the Prime Minister believes Ofwat, The Water Services Regulation Authority, is doing a good job regulating water companies.

Asked whether Rishi Sunak thought the regulator was doing a good job, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “Of course, but we have also recognised that there have been significant challenges in this sector.

“So that is why we are taking further action, not least today in giving Ofwat the powers they need to ban water bosses from receiving bonuses in scenarios where a company has committed serious criminal breaches, which I think the public would expect.”

He added that the measures announced were part of “tougher action” intended to improve water quality and increase investment in the sector.

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The House of Lords will consider reforming the remuneration of directors of water and sewage companies in the UK on Thursday, February 22 in a short debate.

Labour Lord Sikka will ask His Majesty’s Government what plans they have for reform in England regarding Ofwat’s new measures, reports of poor customer service, what action will be taken on executive remuneration and the environmental shortcomings of England’s water and sewage providers.

A Thames Water spokesperson said: “Taking action to improve the health of rivers is a key focus for us and we want to lead the way with our transparent approach to data.

“We’re the first company to provide live alerts for all untreated discharges throughout our region and this ‘near real-time’ data is available to customers as a map on our website and is also available through an open data platform for third parties, such as swimming and environmental groups, to use.

“Of course, what matters most is stopping the need for the discharges and we have published plans to upgrade over 250 of our sewage treatment works and sewers.

“In London, we have started the £100m upgrade of Mogden sewage treatment works, which will increase capacity and reduce the number of storm discharges from the site, and we’re also spending £145m upgrading Beckton sewage works. We’re currently increasing sewage treatment capacity at a number of our other sewage works across the Thames Valley, including Witney and Chesham to be completed by 2025.

“In addition, the Thames Tideway Tunnel, a £4.5bn investment, is nearing completion and will capture 95% of the volume of untreated sewage currently entering the tidal Thames in a typical year.”

Southern Water, South East Water and South West Water been approached for comment.