{"id":273618,"date":"2025-07-19T02:46:22","date_gmt":"2025-07-19T02:46:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/273618\/"},"modified":"2025-07-19T02:46:22","modified_gmt":"2025-07-19T02:46:22","slug":"britains-sewage-crisis-spirals-after-surge-in-number-of-serious-pollution-incidents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/273618\/","title":{"rendered":"Britain&#8217;s sewage crisis spirals after surge in number of serious pollution incidents"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>BRITAIN\u2019S sewage crisis exploded last year with serious pollution incidents up by 60 per cent, damning stats reveal.<\/p>\n<p>There were 75 major incidents in 2024, up from 47 in 2023.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thesun.co.uk\/topic\/thames-water\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Thames Water<\/a> was behind 33 of last year\u2019s incidents, while Southern Water caused 15, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thesun.co.uk\/topic\/yorkshire\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Yorkshire<\/a> Water logged 13.<\/p>\n<p>It means the three firms caused 81 per cent of the most serious environmental damage.<\/p>\n<p>Environment Secretary <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thesun.co.uk\/who\/steve-reed\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Steve Reed<\/a> called the figures \u201cdisgraceful\u201d and a \u201cstark reminder\u201d of how underinvestment and weak regulation had led to record sewage <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thesun.co.uk\/topic\/pollution\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">pollution<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>He highlighted Labour\u2019s ban on bonuses for water bosses and a pledge of \u00a3104billion to upgrade failing sewage pipes.<\/p>\n<p>READ MORE ON SEWAGE SPILLS<\/p>\n<p>And on Monday, he will receive an independent review of the water industry, paving the way for root-and-branch reform.<\/p>\n<p>He is expected to promise to halve spills by 2030 and ensure <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thesun.co.uk\/topic\/bills\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">bills<\/a> do not spiral.<\/p>\n<p>Sources say he could even scrap watchdog Ofwat \u2014 which has been criticised for failing to hold firms to account.<\/p>\n<p>The Environment Agency report also revealed 2,801 total pollution incidents in 2024, up from 2,174 in 2023.<\/p>\n<p>Raw sewage floods street of iconic Scots golfing town <a href=\"#\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Industrial wastewater polluting a river.\" height=\"647\" width=\"960\" data-credit=\"\" data-img=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/oa_4457ttjpg-JS996644316.jpg\" data-caption=\"Britain's sewage crisis exploded last year with serious pollution incidents up by 60 per cent\"   loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/oa_4457ttjpg-JS996644316.jpg\" role=\"img\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>1<\/p>\n<p>Britain&#8217;s sewage crisis exploded last year with serious pollution incidents up by 60 per cent<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BRITAIN\u2019S sewage crisis exploded last year with serious pollution incidents up by 60 per cent, damning stats reveal.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":273619,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5018,3,4],"tags":[748,17135,487,393,4884,257,1144,712,820,28889,118,16,15,1764,2302],"class_list":{"0":"post-273618","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-britain","8":"category-uk","9":"category-united-kingdom","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-climate-change-and-environment","12":"tag-cost-of-living","13":"tag-england","14":"tag-great-britain","15":"tag-london","16":"tag-northern-ireland","17":"tag-scotland","18":"tag-section-newsuk-news","19":"tag-thames-water","20":"tag-the-sun-newspaper","21":"tag-uk","22":"tag-united-kingdom","23":"tag-wales","24":"tag-yorkshire"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114877614635171554","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273618\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}