Top of the Poops

A stylised map of England and Wales showing CSO locations

A Petri Dish for E.Coli

Here are all the CSOs in England & Wales that 'overflowed' in 2024 - Scotland data is coming soon! - dumping raw or minimally treated sewage into fragile chalk streams, rivers, onto beaches and into shellfish areas

Each colour represents a different Water Company, the size of each dot relates to how long each overflow was polluting - where the monitoring is disabled we show a medium-sized dot.

The figures, supplied by the water companies themselves, understate the problem, as the data is poorly collected by the Water Companies, with monitoring defective or in many cases completely absent.

Sewage everywhere

There is sewage overflowing into rivers in almost every constituency across England and Wales. A very few miss out, simply because they don’t have any Combined Sewage Overflows. CSOs mix toilet sewage with rainwater and then discharge it into rivers, creating a horrible environment for fish and other creatures - it poisons them, and the rivers die. You'll find all sorts of unsanitary sanitary products floating downstream.

Top of The Poops - Constituencies

1. Ceredigion Preseli 94,836 hours

2. Caerfyrddin 88,840 hours

3. Dwyfor Meirionnydd 88,682 hours

4. Torridge and Tavistock 70,874 hours

5. Central Devon 70,562 hours

6. Penrith and Solway 58,733 hours

7. Mid and South Pembrokeshire 58,148 hours

8. Daventry 55,424 hours

9. Westmorland and Lonsdale 53,696 hours

10. Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe 52,211 hours

Swimming in sewage

Most, if not actually all, of the beaches and designated coastal bathing locations around England and Wales are regular recipients of a good layer of sewage.

Accuracy Warning We use data from the water companies, but we are seeing many anomalies, that make us believe that bathing location information is quite poor. The situation is likely far worse than reported here.

Water companies have a duty to report on the summer bathing season separately, and this made grim reading in 2022. For more details check out Surfers Against Sewage Water Quality Report 2022

Top of The Poops - Beaches

1.Thames Water - Wolvercote Mill Stream 15,444 hours

2.United Utilities - Wallasey 9,432 hours

3.South West Water - Plymouth Hoe East 9,239 hours

4.South West Water - Steamer Quay, Dart Estuary 7,817 hours

5.United Utilities - Allonby 6,296 hours

6.United Utilities - St Annes 5,942 hours

7.Southern Water - Littlehampton 5,115 hours

8.South West Water - Mothecombe, Coastguards Beach, Erme Estuary 4,581 hours

9.Southern Water - Sandown, Shanklin, Yaverland, Whitecliff Bay 4,081 hours

10.Southern Water - Bognor Regis East, Felpham, Middleton-on-sea 4,059 hours

Rivers & Streams

Of the 4700 rivers in England, few escape from sewage dumping

On the image, you can see a map, in blue of all the rivers that escaped sewage in 2024, and in brown all the rivers that received more than 24 hours of sewage dumps.

Top of The Poops - Rivers

1.Wessex Water - River Avon 39,065 hours

2.South West Water - Unknown 30,218 hours

3.Severn Trent Water - River Trent 26,083 hours

4.Yorkshire Water - River Ouse 25,550 hours

5.Dwr Cymru Welsh Water - River Teifi 22,288 hours

6.Severn Trent Water - River Severn 21,458 hours

7.South West Water - River Tamar 21,237 hours

8.Yorkshire Water - River Aire 21,191 hours

9.Yorkshire Water - River Calder 19,525 hours

10.Anglian Water - River Great Ouse 17,602 hours

A map of England and Wales showing major rivers

Sewage in the food chain?

Shellfish are sensitive to the quality of water that surrounds them, and as they filter the water, they can become contaminated with bacteria from the water around them.