Untreated sewage pours into Langstone harbour

Campaigners call on MPs to vote to make it a legal obligation for water companies to stop dumping raw sewage

A video showing untreated sewage being released into Langstone harbour near Portsmouth for 49 hours straight has been captured by a local filmmaker.

The drone footage shows sewage being pumped from Budds Farm treatment plant into the harbour by water company Southern Water.

It comes as campaigners call on MPs to vote in favour of an amendment to the Environment bill that would make it a legal obligation for water companies to stop dumping raw sewage into Britain’s rivers.

Chris Pearsall, a filmmaker and photographer, said he was “horrified” when he saw the video that his drone was capturing above Langstone harbour last Thursday. He told The Independent: “I knew the second I was out there looking at the screen that I was going to capture something pretty special. I was horrified.

“I had a very similar reaction to everyone on social media. You really can’t see what’s happening from landslide, ground level, you need to be up in the air and it was the drone that did the job.”

Southern Water’s information about wastewater releases on their Beachbuoy programme showed that the dump at Langstone Harbour lasted a total of 49 hours from 02:15am on October 20 to 03:15am on October 22.

Mike Owens, of Hayling Sewage Watch, helped Chris Pearsall to record the shocking footage.

As a regular windsurfer, paddleboarder and swimmer, Mr Owens regularly keeps an eye on the water quality in the harbours around Portsmouth.

He explained the problems the water companies are having, saying: “In wet conditions, they get overwhelmed. Portsmouth’s almost entirely covered in concrete so the drains fill up and they get overwhelmed really quickly. They have to ditch the sewage straight away, otherwise roads start flooding.

“There is no capacity to deal with large influxes of water and to save houses being backed up with sewage they have to let it go.”

Conservative MPs have defended their decision to vote against the Environment bill’s amendment by arguing that it would cost up to £150bn to replace the victorian sewage network. They say that placing this burden on water companies would result in higher costs for consumers.

However Mr Owens argued that there is a much easier, cheaper way to solve the problem. He said: “In Fort Cumberland, they used to dump Portsmouth’s refuse all the time. In west beach lands you could tell when there had been a discharge.

“Southern Water did something about that in 2007 and they built a massive tank to keep hold of all the rain water and sewage mix. When it was a drier season, they sent that stored water to Budds Farm for treatment.”

“That’s the solution,” he added. “It cost them around £10-15m to do it in a few years. The solution is already there.”

A spokesperson for Southern Water said: “Our key priorities are serving our customers, preventing flooding to their homes, schools, and businesses and protecting the environment which is so important to our regional economy.

“By 2025 we will reduce pollutions by 80 per cent and we’re developing proposals to reduce storm releases by 80 per cent by 2030.

“Between 2020 and 2025 we are investing almost £2bn on wastewater services and environmental protection.”