Almost 80,000 hours of sewage spills have been recorded by Thames Water this year as Britain’s sewerage network is overwhelmed by the ongoing wet weather.
The opening six weeks of 2026 have been exceptionally wet, with weather stations across the UK setting records for daily rainfall while parts of the country have remained flooded following successive storms.
Water companies across the country are struggling to cope with the influx of water, resulting in vast amounts of raw sewage being dumped into rivers, lakes and sea.
Firms are allowed to dump sewage from parts of their network known as storm overflows during periods of extreme rainfall to prevent their networks from becoming overwhelmed and waste backing up into homes.
Water companies have set strict targets to reduce spills, but the wet weather this year will make reducing pollution a challenge.
However, water companies have been heavily criticised for how often they use storm overflows; in 2024, the most recent year of full data, there were 450,000 sewage spills in England lasting roughly 3.6 million hours.
Data from Thames Water, analysed by University College London researcher Dr Alex Lipp, shows the company released sewage for almost 80,000 hours across its network during the first six weeks of 2026, a 75 per cent increase on the same period last year.
The figure is the highest Thames Water has recorded during this period since 2023, when the data first became available.
Some overflows that were releasing sewage at the time of writing have been spilling for over a week, including two near an official river bathing site in the town of Wallingford in Oxfordshire.
A spokesperson for Thames Water said the region has seen “markedly wetter conditions than this time last year”.
“We understand that all untreated discharges, even when permitted, are unacceptable; however, it’s important to remember the sewage system was historically designed this way to prevent sewage backing up into people’s homes,” they added.
Thames Water is the only company that makes its entire sewage overflow data available on a real-time basis, but it is likely not the only company seeing a spike in spills due to the wet weather.
An online sewage map run by a group of researchers, including Dr Lipp, showed sewage was being discharged across England on Sunday, with the South West, Midlands and North East particularly badly impacted.
Hundreds of overflows were releasing sewage on Sunday (Photo: Sewage Map)Data from individual storm overflows across the country show some have been actively spilling sewage for weeks straight.
This includes one in the village of Lidsey, West Sussex, operated by Southern Water, which has been spilling for the past 35 days.
Nick Mills, Southern Water’s director for Environment and Innovation, said the region has been “exceptionally wet”, with parts of the South Downs receiving 193 per cent of its long-term average for rainfall in January.
He said the firm was currently undertaking a £2.3m project in Lidsey to seal its sewers to keep out groundwater and reduce the number of sewage overflows.Another overflow in the town of Fordingbridge in the New Forest, operated by Wessex Water, has been discharging for the past 25 days. The sewage is being discharged at the site of an official bathing spot on the River Avon.
A spokesperson for Wessex Water said the spill was due to groundwater infiltrating the sewerage system, a problem which is being addressed by a £900,000 sewer relining scheme.
They added that research by the Environment Agency had shown “minimal ecological impact of these charges”.
It comes as the Government announced 13 proposed new bathing sites across England, including the first one on the River Thames in London, at Ham and Kingston.
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Campaign groups across the country have been applying for bathing water status as part of efforts to clean up their local rivers.
Bathing waters are given greater protection than other waterways; they are regularly monitored through the summer months, and the Environment Agency must come up with an action plan for highly polluted areas.
The i Paper has been calling for the Government to increase the number of bathing spots in rivers as part of its Save Britain’s Rivers campaign.
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