How much SEWAGE is being pumped into the rivers and seas near you? Interactive map reveals appalling scale of pollution at UK’s beauty spots
- The Rivers Trust told punters to check where waste is dumped before swimming
- Shocking map lays bare more than 380,000 spills for nearly 2,350,000 hours
- Water industry issued grovelling apology for dumping millions of tons of sewage
A conservation charity has warned holiday-makers to be cautious as they plan their summer holidays – with a map laying bare the horrifying sewage discharges along scenic hotspots.
The Rivers Trust have told customers to check where waste is being let out into the sea and rivers – and make sure you don’t bathe downstream of one.
It comes as anger boils against water companies – who will have to end sewage dumping by 2050 under new government targets.
Experts at the environmental organisation have compiled an interactive map – showing where sewage is dumped and overflows into rivers, hoping it will help people avoid the human waste polluting our waterways.
The Rivers Trust Comms & Advocacy Director Tessa Wardley said: ‘People are rightly looking forward to exploring the beauty on our doorstep in the British Isles this summer including our rivers, lakes, and beaches, so it’s sad to think there could potentially be discharges happening across the land that stops people enjoying them.
The Rivers Trust have told punters to check where waste is being let out into the sea and rivers – and make sure you don’t bathe downstream of one
The shocking graphic lays bare more than 380,000 spills for nearly 2,350,000 hours of treated sewage and overflows of untreated sewage in England and Wales in 2022 alone. It includes popular seaside desinations, beauty spots and once-celebrated rivers. Pictured: Stock image of sewage pipe
‘The big difficulty for the public is that live data on sewage discharges isn’t widely available at the moment (Thames Water being the exception), so in most places the safest thing to do is to avoid swimming downstream of a known outfall point, particularly if there’s been recent rain.
READ MORE: Water bosses issue grovelling apology after millions of tons of sewage is dumped in Britain’s rivers and coasts
‘If all water companies made their live data available, it would be much easier for the public to identify safer water spots for them to enjoy swimming, paddling, or fishing on their holidays.’
The shocking graphic lays bare more than 380,000 spills of nearly 2,350,000 hours of treated sewage and overflows of untreated sewage in England and Wales in 2022 alone.
And this doesn’t even include all the data – with the charity still waiting for spill data from Hafren Dyfrdwy (Severn Trent) in Wales and the map accounting for 15,210 of 16,791 british storm overflows.
It includes popular seaside desinations, beauty spots and once-celebrated rivers.
The water industry issued a grovelling apology on Wednesday for dumping millions of tons of sewage in British rivers amid widespread public outrage over the continuing scandal.
In Bristol water-lovers have been left disgusted at the state of the river.
The Avon – which flows through the maritime city – is tracked by 85 sewer storm overflows along its main stretch
They have overflowed at least 1511 times in the last year – for more than 1,523 hours
Brian Stacey, 70, a retired Environment Agency engineer, said people are ‘frightened’ to go swimming – and he will only do it in a wetsuit
READ MORE: Customers face rising water bills for ‘up to 100 YEARS’ to pay for cleaning sewage from rivers
The Avon – which flows through the maritime city – is tracked by 85 sewer storm overflows along its main stretch.
They have overflowed at least 1511 times in the last year – for more than 1,523 hours.
And one – just off the harbour’s mouth out at sea – has spilled 99 times in the last year for nearly 750 hours.
Brian Stacey, 70, a retired Environment Agency engineer, said at Bristol harbour: ‘I did a lot of work in my 52-year working life for the Environment Agency and as soon as there is a storm, the water companies release the sewage.
‘The waste sewage works can’t cope with it so they just let it go. It shouldn’t be allowed but there is a law that lets them release it if the sewage works is full.
‘They’ve got away with it for years and years and years.
‘Me and my wife used to swim at Clevedon in the open water and I never liked it because I always knew there was pollution.
‘It does spoil it and people are frightened to go in. I go swimming every week, it’s a wetsuit job now, definitely.’
Gap year student Ninns Lines, 18, from Bristol, was warned not to get water in her mouth when she did sailing lessons in the harbour
Pete Saundersson, 45, an engineering manager at Dyson, claimed people get ill on days that sewage alerts come in
Gap year student Ninns Lines, 18, from Bristol, said: ‘It’s mental.
‘I used to do sailing lessons here in the harbour and they used to say: “don’t get the water in your mouth”. It was so smelly.
‘I also used to do a bit of paddleboarding with my family as well but not more recently.
‘Actions mean more than words and I feel like government people lie a lot.’
Pete Saundersson, 45, an engineering manager at Dyson, said: ‘In the rivers here people get ill on days when there are sewage alerts coming from the companies.
‘There is an impact all over the region.
‘I only go wild swimming in Wales up in the mountains. I wouldn’t swim in Bristol because of the danger of the water now.
‘I would have done a couple of years ago but I just don’t think it’s a possibility here anymore.
Paulo da Silva, 28, a chef, spoke from his partner Caitlin’s leisure cruise narrow boat on Bristol harbour
Caitlin joked that while it is her job to keep people safe on the boat – if they go overboard it is every man for himself
READ MORE: Anger boils over sewage-filled river in holiday hotspot Lyme Regis as shamed water boss is forced to turn down her £450,000 bonus
Locals and tourists have been warned to stay out due to the ‘shocking’ levels of E-coli
‘I think at the moment all we can do is damage limitation reversing the damage we have already done.’
Paulo da Silva, 28, a chef, said from his partner Caitlin’s leisure cruise narrow boat on Bristol harbour: ‘The water here is definitely polluted.
‘The way people treat the environment here in the city centre is not good. People are so ignorant.
‘I’m from Portugal and I love my water but I would never swim in the harbour here.’
Caitlin, 27, added: ‘I’ll tell you this now, my job is to keep people safe on the boat but if you end up in the water I am not coming in after you.
‘I will try and get you out in any other way but I am not going to risk myself in that.’
Ezra Friesner, 21, a deck hand, said: ‘The pollution is naff. Just look at the water. You can hardly see down to the bottom.
‘I am not planning on going in there any time soon.
‘I am a keen swimmer but I do not want to swim in it for fear of coming out with a disease hitherto unknown to man.’
Water UK’s new boss, the former Labour Cabinet minister Ruth Kelly, promised on Wednesday water companies would, if the regulator Ofwat allows it, increase investment in sewage infrastructure by £10billion over the next five years, on top of an existing £3.1billion in a new National Overflows Plan affecting 350,000 miles of sewage pipes.
Water UK said the investment was ‘the biggest modernisation of sewers since the Victorian era’.
Deck hand Ezra Friesner, 21,called the pollution ‘naff’, saying you can hardly see the river’s bottom
Water UK’s new boss, the former Labour Cabinet minister Ruth Kelly, promised on Wednesday water companies would, if the regulator Ofwat allows it, increase investment in sewage infrastructure by £10billion over the next five years
But water bills could increase for up to 100 years to pay for preventing sewage being released into the UK’s rivers and oceans, the head of the industry’s trade body revealed the day after.
It said it would install tanks equivalent in capacity to thousands of Olympic swimming pools to hold rainwater surges, increase the capacity of sewage works and replace concrete with grass and ponds to reduce rainfall run off.
It would also create new reed beds and wetlands to help treat overflow spills that do enter rivers, and enlarge the sewer network.
The plan would reduce the number of sewage spills each year, from 403,170 in 2020 to 263,170 by 2030, Water UK said
Gorleston-on-Sea – named Britain’s Best Beach by Tripadvisor – has been victim to 48 sewage overflows in the last year for a total of more than 29 hours.
And in the Lake District’s Windermere a zoologist has campaigned for the body of water to be granted extra environmental protections, warning the rise in sewage being dumped there is the ‘epitome’ of the problems facing all of Britain’s waterways.
There are two sewer storm overflows in the lake and the river feeding it.
Tripadvisor named Norfolk beach Gorleston-on-Sea, as being the best in the UK and the 12th best in Europe
Matt Staniek, a 26-year-old conservationist claimed his black Labrador Bo fell ill after swimming in the UNESCO protected Lake Windermere
One, at the centre of the famous beauty spot, has spilled 17 times for more than 52 hours in the last year, while a second, near Ambleside, overflowed 57 times for nearly 800 hours.
Matt Staniek, a 26-year-old conservationist, raised the alarm over toxic algal blooms and vanishing wildlife at the ‘dying’ UNESCO-protected beauty spot in the Lake District.
He claims England’s largest lake is on the brink of annihilation, owing to sewage works pollution, local agriculture and the near 2,000 private septic tanks that line the iconic rural hotspot.
He is now calling for Windermere to be granted protected scientific status, fresh investment from water firm United Utilities to tackle the dumping of sewage there, and more regulation to curb leaks in the catchment.
Rock, in Cornwall, is famed for being a holiday favourite of Prince Harry – who first started visiting the resort in the 1990s.
Dubbed Britain’s St Tropez, even the exclusive resort has seen a sewage overflow of over an hour, with idyllic Padstow – which is just acoss the bay – enduring 36 overflows for more than 130 hours in 2022.
At iconic Whitby sewage overflowed 136 for more than 172 hours – more than a week solidly.
At iconic Whitby sewage overflowed 136 for more than 172 hours – more than a week solidly
In cosy Welsh seaside village Mumbles, near Swansea, there were 302 overflows for more than 1600 hours – a combined total of more than nine weeks – in the last year
And in cosy Welsh seaside village Mumbles, near Swansea, there were 302 overflows for more than 1600 hours – a combined total of more than nine weeks – in the last year.
Swimming in water polution could lead to infections and illnesses caused by bacteria and viruses in the water.
Surfers Against Sewage warned Brits not to swim in dozens of beaches in March after heavy raindall let to sewage being discharged into the water.
And analysis shows water companies dumped sewage on to English Blue Flag beaches more than 1,500 times in 2022.
The dumping took place over 8,497 hours on beaches marked as safe and environmentally friendly, raising fresh concern for swimmers and beach-goers.
Blackpool Sands in Devon saw more than 1,000 hours of sewage discharge across 63 dumpings and is the worst offender on their list.
The other most affected beaches include the sheltered cove of Meadfoot Beach, in Torquay, Sidmouth Beach and Exmouth Beach, all in Devon.
On May 9 the bosses of three water companies have decided to waive their bonuses – as pressure mounts over the ongoing scandal of sewage dumping in rivers.
Water firms dumped sewage on England’s cleanest beaches more than 1,500 times last year
Blackpool Sands, in Devon, was the Blue Flag beach worst affected by the dumping and more than 1,000 hours – 42 days – of sewage was released there in 2022
The boss of Yorkshire Water, Nicola Shaw, the boss of Thames Water, Sarah Bentley and Susan Davy, of South West Water all announced their move.
All three had faced huge public criticism over the morality of accepting bumper bonuses while their firms were polluting rivers with industrial quantities of sewage.
Nicola Shaw, who took over from Liz Barber in May of last year, received a base salary of £574,000, according to the company’s annual report.
It is not known what her bonus would have been for the last financial year, but her predecessor received, £679,000.
Public anger has grown at the huge payouts to executives during the crisis of sewage dumping over the past year.
A House of Lords committee said in March that water bosses should not receive bonuses while their companies are missing targets and polluting the environment.
It said ‘a slurry of under-investment, insufficient government strategy, and inadequate co-ordination’ has meant water is not being treated with the care and importance it deserves.
The committee also said the regulator, Ofwat, has failed to ensure companies invest enough money into infrastructure.
The Government has said it is forcing water companies to invest £56 million in updating its infrastructure, much of which is decades old.
Ofwat said that from 2025 it would be set targets for water companies to reduce storm overflow releases, and would fine companies for missing them.
The economic regulator for the water sector also announced that Britain’s privatised water and sewage companies will face increased penalties from 2025 for using faulty or broken equipment to measure pollution from storm overflow pipes.
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