Water firms acting like ‘criminal gangs’ dumping 10,000 hours’ worth of sewage each month on dry days

The shocking data shows seven of England’s nine major water firms spilled nearly 75,000 hours of sewage on dry days in the first seven months of 2025 - incidents which may prove to have broken the law.

Feargal Sharkey, the crusading water campaigner and iconic frontman of The Undertones, said LBC’s research is evidence that England’s water companies could represent the “greatest criminal gang” in recent history.

Under long-standing legislation, water companies are only allowed to discharge raw sewage through storm overflows only permitted during significant rainfall, to prevent combined sewer systems becoming overwhelmed.

However, dry day spills, which occur on days with little or no rainfall, are prohibited.

This is because they can result in a greater concentration of effluent, household waste and industrial by-products settling in waterways, posing dangers to human health, pets and aquatic life.

Using transparency laws, LBC has forced the release of data from some of England’s biggest water companies, revealing alarming levels of pollutants gushing into England's waters on dry days.

South West Water was the most prolific offender, according to LBC’s research, with more than 24,000 hours’ worth of sewage discharged between the start of 2025 and the beginning of August.

It represents a fresh blow for executives at the company, which last week admitted to supplying water unfit for human consumption after a parasitic outbreak in Devon in May 2024. South West Water will be hit with a financial penalty for this outbreak on 2 June.

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Meanwhile, Thames Water, which is still searching for a long-term rescue package having fallen into around £20bn of debt, was responsible for 20,116 hours of dry-day spills in the same period.

Both South West Water and Thames Water were approached for comment.

For Feargal Sharkey, the figures represent a “glaring example” of problems across the industry.

“Yet again, this serves as another glaring example of how the Environment Agency and the government have utterly failed to hold the water companies to account,” a horrified Sharkey told LBC.

“Water companies are not just profiting from pollution - they’re often doing so by illegally dumping sewage into our wonderful rivers, lakes and seas.

“The government must now act against the greatest criminal gang of the modern era and intervene to prosecute these water companies under the Proceeds of Crime Act.”

An additional 20,000 hours were also recorded by a combination of Anglian Water (11,897 hours) and Southern Water (8,165 hours). LBC did not receive data from either Severn Trent or Northumbrian Water.

Since 2015, water and sewage companies have been hit with £153m in fines for breaching environmental and safety standards.

The government has promised a “once-in-a-generation” reform to the water sector to tackle the pollution crisis in England’s beloved rivers.

Measures include upgrades to ageing pipes and the building of ten new reservoirs with the objective of halving sewage pollution by 2030.

To pay for this, households will see their bills rise by 36% over the next four years, taking the typical annual cost to £597.

As well as calling for the water companies to be brought into public ownership, some campaigners say argue that families should not be forced to foot the bill for the issues the industry faces.

Ash Smith, one of the stars of the recent Channel 4 docudrama Dirty Business, which shone a light on decades of sewage dumping, believes there is "an argument" for people to boycott the part of their water bills that goes towards the treatment of sewage.

"There is an argument, that's founded in very good law, that if you're not getting the thing you've paid for, why are you paying it?

“[The Water companies] really don’t want to challenge this because they know we’re right,” Smith, a former detective who investigated pollution in the River Windrush in Oxfordshire, added in an interview with the Mirror.

In response to our findings, a spokesperson for Water UK, the trade body for the water industry, said: "No spill is ever acceptable. Water companies are working to end them as fast as possible by tripling investment.

"Companies are investing £12 billion to halve spills from storm overflows by 2030 including relining and sealing sewers to prevent groundwater infiltration – one of the main causes of dry day spills.

A government spokesperson added: "It is completely unacceptable that so much sewage is entering our waterways and it cannot continue.

“That is why this government has taken action to clean up our rivers, lakes and seas for good.

"We’ve banned unfair bonuses, secured record levels of investment and introduced landmark legislation to hold water companies to account – including jail time for water company executives who obstruct investigations.”