Sewage was dumped in Scottish waterways more than 14,000 times last year - a staggering rate of nearly 40 incidents a day.
Rocker-turned-pollution campaigner Feargal Sharkey said horrendous new figures for 2022 laid bare the “full scale of the horror and abuse of Scotland's rivers”.
The stats, newly-published by Scottish Water, reveal a shocking 47million cubic metres of waste was dumped in our waters last year - equal to nearly 19,000 Olympic swimming pools.
And sewage was discharged an unbelievable 14,008 times in 2022 - an average of about 38 “overflow events” every single day, the highest number of incidents on record.
The Lib Dems branded the revelations “disgusting” - and joined ex-Undertones frontman Sharkey in demanding urgent action from the Scottish Government.
Sewer overflows, which release untreated sewage into rivers and coastal waters, are only intended to operate during extreme weather events.
We revealed new analysis yesterday of sewage spills in 2021 which showed glaring gaps in data - with just 4 per cent of overflows monitored in Scotland, compared to around 90 per cent in England.
Scottish Water has vowed to ramp up the number of storm drain monitors in use to more than 1000 by the end of 2024.
But in light of these latest figures, popstar Sharkey, 64 - now a key voice sounding the alarm over filthy waterways across the UK - hit out: “The full scale of the horror and abuse of Scotland's rivers is slowly being laid bare.
"Government should now, as a matter of urgency, demand that Scottish Water roll out those monitors across the rest of the network, so that the people of Scotland can have the transparency they're entitled to.
"They deserve to see exactly what impact the government and Scottish Water are having on their rivers, their lakes, their environment and their beaches.”
The Teenage Kicks singer added: "The rules are very clear - this should only ever happen in exceptional circumstances.
"By that, my interpretation as a layman is that Noah's Ark would need to be floating down the middle of Sauchiehall Street, collecting animals two by two.
"And certainly, from the scale and extent that it's been going on, there's been nothing resembling that, nothing exceptional. It's become a routine, daily occurrence."
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton blasted: “This is absolutely disgusting.
“Every SNP representative for an area where this is happening should hang their heads in shame.
“At the moment in England almost every sewage overflow is monitored but in Scotland it's only a small fraction. That means the true situation is probably far worse.
“First of all the new Environment Secretary needs to make sure monitoring is ramped up so we get a true picture.
“Then we need an acceleration of measures to upgrade sewage systems and prevent almost 19,000 Olympic pools worth of sewage from flowing into our rivers and onto our beaches."
Labour’s Colin Smyth added: "The SNP and Greens spend lots of time speaking about the environment, but time and time again they have failed to protect it.
"Scots are paying rising water charges and we get nothing in return except more sewage dumped into our waters.”
We told yesterday of thousands of occasions in 2021 where the amount of waste involved in overflow incidents was not logged.
And in the 2022 figures, that trend continues - with nearly 4500 incidents not recording the volume of waste discharged.
Scottish Water said it was “on track” to deliver improvements to Scotland’s 31,000-mile sewer network.
Simon Parsons, Director for Strategic Customer and Service Planning, said: “The quality of Scotland’s water environment remains high, and we continue to invest in infrastructure which helps improve it further, including a commitment to increase monitoring across the waste water system.
“Our waste water treatment systems handle more than 1 billion litres a day. They are a vital part of the water cycle in Scotland.”
Nathan Critchlow-Watton, from the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) which regulates Scottish Water, said: "Sustained effort by SEPA and Scottish Water has improved over 100 sewage works over the past decade.
“During this time, we have also regulated Scottish Water and PFI companies to significantly reduce the number of sewage pollution incidents, from more than 800 to less than 300 per year.
“Despite these successes, we agree there is work to do to improve sewage pollution.
“That is why our focus is on addressing sewer overflows where they cause environmental impacts.”
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “We are proud of the fact that water quality is in good or better condition in 87 per cent of Scotland’s waters and over 66 per cent of our entire water environment is in good ecological condition overall.
"This is higher than the European average and well above comparative data in England.
“That said, we remain committed to maintaining and improving our water environment throughout the country. Our River Basin Management Plan sets out our long-term plans for improvements including the aim to ensure that 92 per cent of our water environment has good or better water quality by 2027.
“This is supported by Scottish Water’s Improving Urban Waters route map, which commits to £500million of investment to improve sewage infrastructure.
"The route map has already identified priority locations for 1,000 new Combined Sewer Overflow monitors and installation will be completed by the end of 2024.”
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