A resident has hit out at sewage dumps which left parts of the River Thames “black and disgusting”.
Shocking pictures showed the polluted water spreading from the mouth of Deptford Creek, south-east London, into the Thames yesterday.
Water firms are known to release waste water into waterways during periods of heavy rain to prevent sewers backing up into homes and businesses.
The local said: “It is such a shame – the north bank of the Thames is black now.”
Thames Water confirmed a sewage discharge from its Deptford storm overflow, on the western side of the creek, on Wednesday.
But the local, who lives opposite two outfall pipes on the eastern side, alleged wastewater was being dumped more than 12 hours after torrential rainfall hit on Thursday.
He added: “When it was raining it was chucking it out of these pipes. Then at 1am one of them suddenly started pumping into the river again.
“It had stopped raining for 12 hours by then. That’s really not on, doing it under the cover of darkness.”
Water firms are thought to have discharged sewage in waterways for a total of 9,427,355 hours from 2016 to 2021 – up more than 2,500% on the previous five years, according to reports.
Thames Water said it was investing £2billion in upgrades and pledged to reduce the duration of spills by 50% by 2030.
A spokesman added: “We regard all discharges of untreated sewage as unacceptable and will work with the government, Ofwat and the Environment Agency to accelerate work to stop them being necessary, and are determined to be transparent.”
