Wales' not for profit water company released sewage into rivers, lakes and seas for nearly 600,000 hours last year according to new data released for 2022. That equates to untreated sewage discharging into Welsh waterways non-stop for 68 years.
Welsh Water has to report the number of times it allows sewage to spill into waterways every year. In 2022, there were more than 83,000 spills where sewage was allowed to enter the natural system with untold damage to the environment. Just over 77,000 of these were classed as "significant". This is a small reduction on the number of releases the previous year, 2021.
It's not illegal for Welsh Water to dump sewage and the company - which paid its chief executive £232,000 in bonuses last year - has said it is too expensive to remove the combined storm overflows (CSOs) from its system. During periods of heavy rain, more water enters the infrastructure - some of which was built in the Victorian era - and CSOs help relieve the pressure in the system. But it means untreated sewage is released during the spill events and often contains things like human waste, toilet paper and hygiene material which pose a serious risk to local wildlife and swimmers.
Read more: Welsh Water bills to rise 'significantly' to tackle pollution in rivers
Out interactive maps below show each Welsh Water outlet in Wales and how long and how many times sewage was allowed to spill in 2022. The locations with the longest spill times are Station Row CSO at Pontyrhyl, Bridgend (7,804 hours), Bettws Road CSO in Llangeinor (7,784 hours) and Aberech WwTW storm overflow (4,298 hours).
The rivers most affected in 2022 are the River Garw, River Tawe, River Teifi, River Usk, River Rhymney and the River Taff. These are among the 10 most polluted rivers in the UK. Carmarthenshire topped the list if areas most affected with more than 11,000 sewage discharges, totalling about 88,000 hours.
Although the 2022 figures are a marked improvement on 2021 - lower than by almost 25% - the weather is the biggest factor in this change. Wales experienced the driest January to August in 2022 since 1976. Although CSOs have always existed, it's possible that more intense storms linked to climate change could cause spill events to become more frequent.
Increased run-off from concrete surfaces also means water enters the sewerage system quicker and it becomes overwhelmed is a shorter period of time.
Welsh Water has said it would take anywhere between £9bn and £14bn to remove CSOs from the network and as a compromise it's instead targeting investment to the CSOs which have the biggest environmental impact. Last week Welsh Water customers were told there will be "significant bill increases" in order to tackle pollution in rivers. Six of the most polluted rivers in the UK are in Wales.
Surfers Against Sewage said it had issued a total of 2,053 sewage pollution alerts for locations in England and Wales in the 2022 bathing season alone. It also said that more than 39% of sickness case studies reported to it were "correlated to sewage discharge alerts".
The Conservative shadow minister for climate change, Janet Finch-Saunders MS, said the latest figures were "deeply shocking" for people in Wales. She added: "We know that this level of waste release is incredibly unhealthy for swimmers, but also for our vital wildlife ecosystems. It beggars belief that Welsh Water will be shelling out nearly a quarter of a million pounds as a bonus for their boss for this atrocious record, at the same time as raising prices for Welsh billpayers."
She called for "urgent intervention" to deal with the "Victorian sewage issue".
Welsh Water said there had been a 12% reduction in the number of storm releases per overflow from the previous year and a 25% reduction in total spill duration.
Welsh Waters said: "While we are pleased to see the reduction, which in part is due to the investment work we are undertaking to reduce spills, the reduction has also been influenced by the weather we saw last year. The annual rainfall for the year was 10% below the long term average, we saw the driest January-August period since 1976 and drought conditions were declared across parts of Wales and England.
"The total removal of combined storm overflows from our system is unaffordable and would take decades and therefore is not an option but what is in our control is the ability to target investment to CSOs which have the biggest environmental impact. That is why we are investing significantly to improve CSOs with £140m being invested between 2020-2025 and a further £420m planned from 2025 to 2030."
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