Pollution

Raw sewage discharged into English rivers 399,864 in 2022 the equivalent of 1,091 times every day.  Untreated sewage and rainwater should only be released into rivers and coastal waters via storm overflow pipes in extreme weather. However, water companies’ data released by the Environmental Agency shows raw sewage was released into waterways for hundreds of thousands of hours in 2022, a total 399,864 spills were recorded on overflows where event duration monitors were in place, (2021, showed a total of 372,533 spills).