Exclusive: 7,280 suspected illegal spills in rivers and sea recorded in first five months of 2026
The number of suspected illegal discharges of raw sewage into rivers and seas by water companies during dry weather increased significantly during the first five months of 2026.
Dumping raw sewage into waterways during dry spells via overflows amounts to pollution. It is considered a breach of the permits given to water companies and is illegal. Discharging during dry weather increases the toxicity of the sewage pollution entering waterways. Rivers have less flow and volume, and there is no rainwater to dilute the sewage pollution entering the waterway.
Last year, in what regulators said was tougher action on sewage pollution, water companies in England were for the first time required to report to the Environment Agency the number of times they discharged raw sewage from combined sewer overflows during dry weather. A dry day spill is flagged when an overflow operates despite little to no rainfall that day and the previous day.
In 2025, water companies in England and Wales reported 8,576 dry spill pollution discharges. But according to freedom of information requests submitted by Environment Agency whistleblower Robert Forrester, the pollution is getting worse, not better, despite the regulator’s promise of tougher action.
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UK Prime Minister Burnham U-turns over Thames Water nationalisation
UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s abrupt abandonment of his flagship pledge to bring Thames Water into public ownership exposes the emptiness of his promises to “reverse Thatcherism.”
Last week Burnham backed down at the very moment the criminal pollution record and financial collapse of Britain’s most distrusted and environmentally destructive privatised utility demanded decisive action and the prosecution of those responsible. He now insists nationalisation would be “too costly,” “too complex,” “too disruptive.”
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