The water industry is a dirty business – it’s time it cleaned up its act

Did you know the UK’s 9,000 water treatment centres are free to dump sewage at will into our rivers? The true scale of the leaks, however, is even murkier than you might think, writes Sean Smith

Volunteers on a river clean-up to remove litter and invasive plants in London (Getty)

After a bout of heavy rain, take a stroll on a riverbank and a glance at the surging water but don’t stray too close to the edge because there’s a good chance you’re standing beside an open sewer. Untreated waste gives rivers a telltale greyish hue but typically the presence of toilet paper, condoms, sanitary pads, human “solids” and a manmade mound of wet wipes provides more tangible evidence that raw sewage has just been discharged.

When its water treatment centres are inundated by “exceptional” rainfall, the water industry is legally permitted to relieve pressure by pumping untreated waste directly into rivers through its 21,000 sewage overflow outlets.

In theory, if the spills are rare and occur during periods of high waterflow the sewage is diluted and the swollen rivers flush themselves clean. But in practice – because there is no fixed definition of “exceptional” rainfall – the UK’s 9,000 water treatment centres are free to dump sewage at will because cuts to government agencies mean that river water quality is no longer properly monitored.