6m hours of sewage: Britain’s worst regions for water pollution revealed

An analysis of three key data sets has been used to rank local authorities in terms of sewage pollution as UK bathing waters sink to Europe’s bottom five, with just 14% of rivers meeting good environmental standards.

Conducted by SEO marketing agency Reboot, the study used official reports from Data.Gov.UK, The Met Office, and The Rivers Trust to assess the impact of wastewater entering rivers, lakes and coastal areas. 

Due to general population growth, the total sewage load in England and Wales is predicted to have increased by 44% between 1961 and 2039 based on current trends. Honing down to the period between 2017 and 2022, all three criteria used to gauge the health of bathing water were found to have significantly worsened.

E.coli count is up by almost 20%, Intestinal Enterocci has risen by 21%, and overall spill events from overflow grew by more than 28%. In 2022 alone, the combined number of sewage flooding hours reached 6m across all regions involved in the assessment.

Despite its reputation for green politics, Brighton & Hove now ranks as the authority with the worst Bathing Water Quality Degradation Score (98.5%). Meanwhile, the South West is home to the worst bathing water overall. In terms of water companies, Severn Trent Water had the highest frequency of storm overflows (2,658) and Thames Water had the longest lasting overflows per storm, with an average of 11.1hours. 

The following infographic shows how each supplier in England and Wales compare on lines of storm overflows, spills per overflow, and hours per spill. 

This map shows which regions of England and Wales are worst impacted by sewage pollution based on a Sewage Overflow Score, taking into account total spills, total spill hours, and average number of spills per heavy rain day.

The following table shows the average Bathing Water Degradation Score by region for England and Wales: 

1. South East England – 75.4
2. London – 56.7 
3. North West – 50.8 
4. South West – 45.5 
5. East England – 41.8 
6. North East – 40.3
7. Yorkshire & The Humber – 32.9 
8. East Midlands – 6.0 

Reboot’s data can be found in full here.

The report has been released just days after Environment Secretary, Thérèse Coffey, announced that water companies would soon need to provide clear assessments and action plans on storm overflows.

Read our report on what will be expected, the number of fines handed out for illegal pollution of UK waters in 2021, and what measures are set to be introduced to hold guilty parties accountable. 

Images: Top – pisauikan / Middle, bottom – Reboot