Here are all the CSOs in England and Wales that 'overflowed' in 2021 - 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
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. Many recordings of data don't seem to be associated with a valid permit, so it is impossible to know where they are.
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 CSOs - Combined Sewage Overflows - that mix rainwater and toilet sewage. This then flows into the 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.
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.
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
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 2021, and in brown all the rivers that received more than 24 hours of sewage dumps.
The 1100 or so rivers in Wales didn't escape, unfortunately, but Dwr Cymru don't include the information in their reports to enable us to draw the map very easily. Perhaps they will include it in 2022?
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Top of the poops - Beloved Midlands river pumped with more sewage than any other
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UK's 20 most polluted rivers revealed in Top of the Poops league table
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Only 6% of Britain’s rivers on course to be healthy by 2027 as UK’s firms pump more raw sewage
Feb 10, 2023
Water Quality Report 2022
Oct 30, 2022
Sewage central: how our region is being affected by the water scandal
Aug 30, 2022
Sewage dumped into West Norfolk rivers by Anglian Water more than 1,000 times in 2021
Aug 26, 2022
