Southern Water ‘dumps sewage 493 times in eight days at bathing beaches’

The November data analysed by SOS Whitstable shows that Southern has listed a raw sewage discharge at Bexhill, pictured, of over 120 hours as ‘non-impacting’. Photograph: sbaelliot/Alamy

Southern Water has discharged raw sewage for more than 3,700 hours at 83 bathing water beaches during the first eight days of November alone, according to company data analysed by campaigners.

Ed Acteson of SOS Whitstable, which has been monitoring the data, said in his experience the scale was equivalent to five months’ worth of discharges: “The Environment Act was supposed to herald a new era for the environment in Britain. But this is the worst I have ever seen sewage pollution in the south-east.”