Serious water pollution incidents surge 60% in England in a year as firms blasted for 'national disgrace'

There were 2,801 pollution incidents in England in 2024, a record-high, compared with 2,174 in 2023.

Of these, 75 were deemed to pose "serious or persistent" harm to fisheries, drinking water and human health, a 47 increase from last year.

The Environment Agency has come under scrutiny for its own oversight of water firms' pollution performance.

It said more than 80 percent of the 75 instances lay in the hands of Thames Water (33), Southern Water (15) and Yorkshire Water (13).

A "consistently poor performance" was found across all nine water and wastewater firms in the UK, it added.

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Alan Lovell, the EA's chairman, said: "This report demonstrates continued systemic failure by some companies to meet their environmental targets.

"The water industry must act urgently to prevent pollution from occurring and to respond rapidly when it does.

"We have made significant changes to tighten our regulation of the water industry and ensure companies are held to account.

"With a dedicated larger workforce and increased funding, our officers are uncovering and acting on failures to comply with environmental law."

River Action CEO James Wallace slammed the figures as a "national disgrace".

He told the BBC: "These figures expose a brutal truth. Serious pollution incidents are rising, sewage discharges remain rampant, and our rivers are spiralling toward ecological collapse. This is not just regulatory failure; it is a national disgrace."

He added that "Thames Water, the most egregious polluter, should be put into special administration to start the reset."

The heavily indebted supplier with over 16 million customers was fined a record £122.7 million after it was found to have broken rules over sewage treatment and paying out dividends.

Reasons for the 2024 hike in pollution incidents included continued underinvestment in new infrastructure, poor asset maintenance, and reduced resilience as a result of climate change, a report found.

Meanwhile, intense rainfall that sparked storm overflows led to sewage discharges throughout the year.

The Public Accounts Committee has blasted the level of pollution as "woeful".

The group of cross party MPs called for regulation of water companies to face a "complete overhaul" amid the lack of public trust and anger over surging bills to account for long overdue infrastructure upgrades.

Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, head of the committee, said: "Regulators are overwhelmed by the number of prosecutions and appear unable to deter companies from acting unlawfully. Government must act now to strengthen regulators and support their efforts to hold companies to account."

The Independent Water Commission, set up by the government last year and led by former Bank of England deputy governor Sir Jon Cunliffe, is se to present final recommendations on the regulatory framework next week.

It comes as several firms have imposed hosepipe bans after areas experienced "prolonged dry weather".

Thames Water has announced a hosepipe ban will begin next Tuesday for customers in Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, most of Wiltshire and some parts of Berkshire.

The Met Office has warned the UK is breaking heat and rainfall records increasingly frequently as the climate warms up.

And as the UK's climate warms, it is also getting wetter, with extremes of rainfall, floods and storms in 2024, as in recent years.

England and Wales had the wettest winter from October 2023 to March 2024 on record in more than 250 years, as floods hit Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, the West Midlands and eastern Scotland.