More than 384,000 discharges of raw sewage were reported by water companies across England and Wales in 2022, official figures show, in what the Rivers Trust has described as “extremely bad news for environmental and human health”.
However, the true scale may be even greater, as a new legal challenge has claimed. Meanwhile, another set of water firms are under investigation by the regulator Ofwat and the Environment Agency for alleged illegal dumping of sewage from treatment works, and an independent watchdog is now saying that the government and even the regulators themselves may have broken the law by letting firms discharge raw sewage more often than law allows.
As the inquiry continues, exclusive data seen by the Guardian reveals how one company, Thames Water, appears to be dumping raw sewage outside the permitted conditions at two of its sites. Dumping outside these conditions – for example, in dry weather – is a breach of the regulations and the discharges are considered to be illegal.
