Thousands of Suspected Sewage Spills Reported During England’s Dry Weather

Water companies in England recorded 7,280 suspected discharges of raw sewage into rivers and seas during dry weather between January and May 2026, according to reporting by The Guardian based on freedom of information requests. Dry-weather discharges are flagged when a combined sewer overflow operates despite little or no rainfall on that day and the day before. Such systems are intended to relieve pressure during extreme weather, but releasing sewage during dry conditions is considered pollution and can breach companies’ permits. The 2026 figure is already close to the 8,576 dry-weather discharges reported across England and Wales during the whole of 2025. The comparison uses the same reporting instructions and data-recording system, although the water industry said the latest figures had not yet been verified and should not automatically be described as confirmed dry spills. South West Water accounted for 1,299 reported dry-day discharges in the first five months of 2026, compared with 2,451 during all of 2025. The company operates across Devon, Cornwall and parts of Dorset and Somerset. Concerns also grew after rainfall followed more than six weeks of drought in August. Publicly mapped data showed Southern Water and South West Water discharging from storm overflows within hours of the first significant rain. In south-west England, South West Water’s own data indicated almost 300 combined hours of sewage discharges during one week in August. Ed Tyldesley, a Liberal Democrat councillor in north Devon, said the figures showed 664 separate spills across 184 locations despite 16.5mm of rain. Tyldesley said the company had warned that live monitoring data could contain false readings, leaving uncertainty over whether the reported discharges occurred or whether the monitoring system was unreliable. Robert Forrester, a former Environment Agency officer, said dry-day spills would generally be deliberate and illegal. The water industry rejected any firm conclusion from the unverified figures, while Water UK said companies were investing £12bn to reduce storm-overflow spills by 2030. South West Water said overflow activations can have several causes and are not determined by rainfall alone. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said companies must now report dry-day spills as pollution incidents, giving the government evidence to pursue poor performance.