Raw sewage spilled into English rivers 824 times a day last year
Raw sewage was spilled into English rivers 824 times a day last year – despite the fact there was barely any rainfall and most of the country was in drought.
Thérèse Coffey, the environment secretary, is facing calls from the Liberal Democrats to resign over failures to stop sewage spills, as the party argues she “doesn’t care” about the issue.
Water companies say they have to pour sewage into waterways when drains are overwhelmed by weather events such as heavy rainfall. But data from the Environment Agency shows there were just over 300,000 sewage spills in 2022, a record dry year.
While the data shows a 19% reduction in the number of sewage spills – down from 372,533 in 2021 to 301,091 spills in 2022 – government sources said this was still more than would have been expected as last year was so dry.
The Environment Agency executive director, John Leyland, said: “The decrease in spills in 2022 is largely down to dry weather, not water company action.
“We want to see quicker progress from water companies on reducing spills and acting on monitoring data.
“We expect them to be fully across the detail of their networks and to maintain and invest in them to the high standard that the public expect and the regulator demands.”
The Lib Dem leader, Ed Davey, said: “A historic drought is no excuse for this government’s inaction and failure. The environment secretary has let water companies get away with this environmental crime for far too long. It is clear she simply doesn’t care enough to get tough on these polluting firms. Thérèse Coffey must now resign or be sacked so we can have an environment secretary who actually cares about saving our rivers from destruction.”
Campaigners highlighted that despite the failure to stop sewage
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