UK’s worst region for sewage spills revealed as public anger mounts - see top 10 most polluted areas

Cornwall is the UK’s worst region for sewage spills as it counted 11,285 discharges into its seas and rivers last year.

The region has recorded the most storm overflow spills than any other area in the UK, according to a ‘Polluted Waters Report’ by Utility Bidder.

It is also the area with the second highest total duration of spills in the UK with 78,775 hours of raw sewage discharges recorded last year.

According to Utility Bidder more than 389,000 discharges of untreated sewage entered UK rivers in 2022.

Discharges occur due to storm overflows which act as relief valves when the sewerage system is at risk of being overwhelmed such as during heavy downpours.

To prevent flooding during these times, water companies sometimes use storm overflows to release extra rainwater and wastewater into rivers or seas.

Not far behind Cornwall in the highest amount of sewage spills was Carmarthenshire which had 11,195 counted spills throughout last year.

Carmarthenshire is nicknamed the ‘Garden of Wales’ due to its agriculture and land, but the pesticides used in farming have been known to contribute to water pollution in the area.

Other areas in the top ten included County Durham, Northumberland and Pembrokeshire but they had recorded less than 10,000 overspills.

Cornwall did not appear on a list of top ‘average spill duration’ locations which means there is a shorter period of time where storm overflows contribute to pollution in the sea and rivers.

Chichester was found to have a higher duration of sewage spills than any other UK area with an average spill duration of 15.8 hours. It was closely followed by Test Valley in Hampshire and West Berkshire which has the River Thames running through it which is likely to have been polluted by the sewage spills there.

Utility Bidder said it used Catchment Based Approach Data Hub to find the number of counted spills and the total duration of spills in each local authority across England and Wales in 2022.

It then divided the total duration of spills by the number of counted spills to calculate the average spill duration for each local authority.

It comes after Brits were warned not to swim at sixteen popular beaches across south west England the past weekend.

Environment group Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) issued the alerts on its interactive map due to the “likelihood of reduced water quality” after waste had been discharged from sewer overflows.

The beaches in Cornwall included in the list were Porth, Porthluney, Par Sands, East Looe and Seaton.

Which regions saw the highest number of sewage spills last year?

Listed are the UK regions that recorded the highest amount of sewage discharges in 2022.

10. Neath Port Talbot - 5,034

9. Bradford - 5,216

8. Allerdale - 6,774

7. Pembrokeshire - 6,988

6. Northumberland - 7,382

5. Rhondda Cynon Taf - 7,875

4. Gwynedd - 9,715

3. County Durham - 9,940

2. Carmarthenshire - 11,195

1. Cornwall - 11,285