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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Environment
Sandra Laville

Raw sewage discharged into English rivers 375,000 times by water firms

White and brown foam on water of the Thames.
The number of raw sewage discharges in 2021 was down slightly on the previous year. Photograph: Maureen McLean/Rex/Shutterstock

Water companies discharged raw sewage into English rivers 372,533 times last year, a slight reduction on the previous year.

The water companies covering England released untreated sewage for a combined total of more than 2.7m hours; compared with 3.1m hours in 2020, according to data released by the Environment Agency (EA) on Thursday.

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