A Government ban on wet wipes has reportedly been proposed by Thames Water as a solution to the problem of sewage being dumped into Britain’s waterways.
Water companies have released raw sewage into UK rivers and seas almost 150 times during dry weather - despite being told to do so only when there is heavy rainfall, according to campaigners.
Analysis by campaign group Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) of discharge alerts and meteorological data shows so-called "dry spills" occurred at least 146 times "at a conservative estimate" during times there was no rain recorded, between October last year and September.